Thèses sur le sujet « Wealth decisions »

The chapters of this thesis analyse elements of households' consumption, labour supply and saving decisions within the life cycle framework. The focus is on three main issues arising in this context. The first considers modelling both a durable good (housing) and labour supply choices together with life cycle choices over consumption and sav ings. The importance of modelling these features together comes from the existence of explicit earnings-related borrowing constraints when taking out a mortgage. Empiri cal evidence is provided for the UK and the modelling exercise, although not aimed to reproduce the evidence of a single country, is calibrated to the UK. The second issue concerns incorporating expectations into the model. Two ap proaches axe followed in the different chapters. One approach infers expectations from past realisations. The alternative approach uses expectations elicited in survey inter views. The third issue relates to whether individuals save enough for their retirement. This question is addressed by using expectations on retirement outcomes, elicited directly in accordance with the approach mentioned above, and collected for a representative sample of the Italian working population. Data of interest to our exercise is for the years before and after a series of major pension reforms.

This thesis provides two general equilibrium models to analyse the macroeconomic effect of risk on wealth-enhancing investment decisions. In chapter 1, we present an overlapping generations model in which aspirational agents face uncertainty about the returns to human capital. Investment in human capital requires external funding, implying a probability of bankruptcy that is greater the lower the human capital endowment of an agent. We show that agents with sufficiently low human capital endowments may experience such a strong influence of loss aversion that they abstain from human capital investment. We further show how this behaviour may be transmitted through successive generations to cause initial inequalities to persist. These results do not rely on any credit market imperfections. In chapter 2 we note that most working-age Americans obtain health insurance coverage through the workplace. U.S. law requires employers that offer health plans to use a price common to all in the group. However, the value of health insurance to risk-averse agents varies with their idiosyncratic health risk. Hence, linking employment and health insurance creates a wedge between the marginal cost and benefit of insurance. Since health risk can be sizable and health insurance is part of total employee compensation, the wedge can affect firm and employee decisions. We study the impact of this wedge on occupational choice, productivity and welfare in a general equilibrium model with agents who are endowed with idiosyncratic health risk and heterogeneous managerial ability. Agents choose whether to be a worker or an entrepreneur. We find that the wedge distorts occupational choice by causing two types of misallocations. Some highly skilled individuals with adverse health shocks leave entrepreneurship while individuals with intermediate skills but favourable health shocks opt to manage firms. Four policies are analysed: expansion of employer-based health insurance; private insurance; health insurance exchanges; and universal health coverage. Factor prices are determined endogenously and programs are financed by lump sum taxes. We assess the quantitative effects of the policies on firm size, productivity, GDP, and earnings. Welfare effects may be positive or negative, vary significantly with an individual's position in the asset and ability distributions, and are sensitive to changes in risk aversion.

Thesis advisor: Alicia H. Munnell
This dissertation contains three essays. Each considers an economic decision faced by elderly households. The cost of nursing home care represents a substantial financial risk for older households. Yet, only 10 percent purchase long-term care insurance (LTCI), with many relying on Medicaid. The first essay estimates a structural model of the LTCI purchase decision using Health and Retirement Study data. Estimates indicate that this population has a modest preference for higher quality care and thus Medicaid crowds out LTCI. In addition, housing wealth provides self-insurance against the cost of nursing home care, so that individuals who are "house-rich cash-poor" are less likely to purchase LTCI. I also evaluate public policies designed to stimulate the take-up of LTCI and reduce Medicaid spending. I find that a comprehensive 20 percent subsidy would increase take-up by 160 percent, but the resulting Medicaid savings would amount to only 22 percent of the subsidy cost. A targeted subsidy would be more likely to break even, but would have only a small effect on coverage. Full enforcement of Medicaid estate recovery programs would reduce Medicaid expenditure by 31 percent, but would have insignificant effect on LTCI coverage. The second essay investigates the impact of house prices fluctuations on the non-durable goods consumption decision of older households. House prices in the United States fluctuate over time with significant regional variation. Thus, understanding how these price movements affect households' consumption has important policy implications. Existing studies focus mostly on the working population, leaving the effect of older households, who could be either the largest beneficiaries or victims of house price fluctuations, unexamined. Using Health and Retirement Study data, I show that house price fluctuations significantly affect non-durable goods consumption of older households. Estimates indicate that both the wealth effect and a relaxed borrowing constraint increase consumption when house prices appreciate. In addition, I find that only unexpected changes in house prices lead to changes in consumption of non-credit constrained households, which is consistent with economic theory predictions. Finally, I provide evidence that older households usually fund the additional consumption by increasing mortgage debt, rather than by drawing down financial assets. The third essay evaluates the value of the additional longevity insurance acquired by delaying claiming social security benefit. Individuals can claim Social Security at any age from 62 to 70, although most claim at 62 or soon thereafter. Those who delay claiming receive increases that are approximately actuarially fair. I show that expected present value calculations substantially understate both the optimal claim age and the losses resulting from early claiming because they ignore the value of the additional longevity insurance acquired as a result of delay. Using numerical optimization techniques, I illustrate that for plausible preference parameters, the optimal age for non-liquidity constrained single individuals and married men to claim benefit is between 67 and 70. I calculate that Social Security Equivalent Income, the amount by which benefits payable at suboptimal ages must be increased so that a household is indifferent between claiming at those ages and the optimal combination of ages, can be as high as 19 percent
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics

The growing dissatisfaction with perceived distributional inequality and budgetary constraints gave rise to a discussion on the (re-)introduction of wealth taxes. Wealth taxes are typically levied on private wealth, in some countries also on corporate wealth. To avoid misleading statements concerning possible distributional consequences of wealth taxes, preceding analyses of the economic and particularly investment effects are necessary. As investments drive job creation, tax-induced changes in investment timing may significantly affect the income and wealth distribution. We analyze the impact of wealth taxes on investment timing under uncertainty and irreversibility and the propensity to carry out risky projects. Using a Dixit/Pindyck type real options model we find that wealth taxes have real effects. This means that higher wealth tax rates can either stimulate or depress the propensity to invest in risky projects. We find that apparently paradoxical wealth tax effects (accelerated investment due to higher wealth tax rates) are more likely for low interest rates and for high-risk investments. Using either historical cost or fair value accounting may affect investment timing ambiguously. Thus, the design of wealth taxes is crucial for the resulting delay or acceleration of investment. Although our model takes an individual perspective, our findings are also relevant for the current tax policy discussion on the introduction of wealth taxes. Our results indicate that wealth taxes are particularly harmful for specific classes of investments, for example low-risk investments. (authors' abstract)
Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Series

is worldwide concern that people do not save enough towards retirement. To stimulate savings, tax incentives are a method employed by governments to encourage retirement savings. In this context, the asset allocation decisions that individuals make and the asset allocation restrictions that are imposed by regulators in an attempt to protect retirement savings, potentially impact the retirement ending wealth, which could be accumulated in the pre-retirement phase of an individual. The objective of the study was to determine the impact of tax legislation, Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act (24/1956) and asset allocation choices on accumulated retirement ending wealth and what could be deemed appropriate for most individuals considering different time horizons. Therefore, the aim of this study was two-fold: to determine whether pension fund legislation which limits the exposure to risky asset classes resulted in sub-optimal accumulated retirement ending wealth despite the associated tax savings; and to determine whether life cycle retirement funds, as opposed to different balanced retirement funds, were appropriate for most individuals. The study did not find support for the notion that direct investment funds dominated high equity balanced retirement funds that complied with Regulation 28 as measured by firstorder and almost stochastic dominance. Despite the higher asset allocation to equities that was possible with direct investments, this benefit was outweighed by the tax savings attributable to retirement funds. Additionally, the results of the study refuted the notion that a direct investment fund could be optimal over a long investment horizon. The implication of the finding was that an individual saving for retirement should, firstly, do so by taking full advantage of the tax savings that retirement funds offered. Hence retirement funds are an effective retirement saving tool despite the limitations on high-risk asset class allocations. The study found only limited support for the hypothesis that a theoretical retirement fund with a 100 per cent allocation to equities dominated a high equity balanced retirement fund that complied with Regulation 28 (particularly in the case of a 100 per cent local equity retirement fund compared with a Regulation 28 high equity balanced fund with no foreign equity exposure). Because the South African equity asset class was very volatile (annualised standard deviation of 19.8 per cent against 17.4 per cent for local against foreign equity in the data used in the study), a high exposure could lead to very low accumulated retirement ending wealth values; the intent of Regulation 28 was to protect the retirement savings of individuals against such adversity. Despite being perceived as very restrictive on the individual, the findings could not conclude that Regulation 28 restrictions on asset classes were inappropriate. This study provided no support for the notion that a life cycle fund dominated a balanced fund with similar starting asset allocation from the perspective of accumulated retirement ending wealth. This raised the question whether life cycle funds, which are often included as default options for members of retirement funds, have a place. Hence they were likely not the optimal choice compared with a balanced fund counterpart with similar starting asset allocation. However, they could be attuned to the preferences of the individual (such as risk and personal preferences) rather than a rational objective assessment of one fund compared with another. The study provided mixed support for whether a life cycle fund dominated a balanced fund with dissimilar starting asset allocations. This indicated that whether there was a place for a life cycle fund in any retirement fund default options, or whether it was optimal compared with an alternative balanced fund, strongly depended on the underlying asset allocations of the funds while the length of the glide path, the investment horizon as well as the risk and return characteristics of the investable universe could also influence the conclusion. The study uniquely contributed to the retirement savings question with evidence that did not support the notion that Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act was necessarily inappropriate to serve the purpose of protecting retirement savings. The study also showed how the lower risk attribute of life cycle strategies impacted on accumulated retirement ending wealth, how it compared with balanced funds and which choice would be appropriate for most individuals. Because the life cycle industry is a fast-growing portion of the retirement fund market and becoming more popular as default options in retirement funds, the study contributed by contrasting life cycle funds with balanced funds and showed that the choice of which fund was optimal, was driven by the different characteristics of the funds such as investment horizon, starting and ending asset allocations as well as the length of the glide path.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2015.
tm2016
Financial Management
PhD
Unrestricted

Cette recherche teste de manière empirique la valeur d'une marque de société pour ses actionnaires et les propriétés de la marque en réduisant les risques à un niveau corporatif. Ce processus s'opère indépendamment des récessions économiques. Les études précédentes, ayant établi une relation entre les activités de marketing et la création de la valeur pour les actionnaires, se concentrent principalement sur les marques des produits plutôt que la valeur d'une marque de société et négligent le contrôle des autres variables financières et de performance de marché. Cette recherche est fondée sur la théorie du positivisme. La théorie du positivisme postule que la seule connaissance authentique est celle basée sur l’expérience et la réalité. L’échantillonnage aléatoire des données a été choisi pour la partie quantitative de cette étude et pour la section qualitative de cette recherche, l’auteur a choisi l’échantillonnage et la technique principale de recueillir des données est l’observation.La contribution principale de cette étude à la littérature est précisément la marque commerciale, ses caractéristiques de mélange du risque et de la création de richesse pour les actionnaires, et l'utilisation des contrôles financiers et de marché, tout en vérifiant les relations entre contrôles financiers et contrôles de marché. En utilisant les données annuelles du sondage Interbrand entre 1994 et 2008, l’auteur trouve une preuve forte pour les entreprises qui possèdent une ou plusieurs marques globales très connues et la richesse pour les actionnaires. Ce résultat est cohérent avec la théorie actuelle de la marque qui postule que les efforts liés au développement d'une marque ajoutent de la valeur à l’entreprise et démontrent des caractéristiques12de variation du risque. Les résultats demeurent solides à la suite de l'analyse factorielle et de la régression multivariée. Dans la partie qualitative de la recherche, l’auteur présente des cas relativement notoires de marques corporatives – leur histoire et la raison expliquant leur succès ainsi que les différentes politiques de marque sont soulignées. Cette section peut être considérée la validation qualitative des résultats quantitatifs. Il s'agit donc d'une méthodologie de triangulation. Les cadres conceptuels et les modèles théoriques ont été monopolisés afin d’analyser davantage les cas qualitatifs de cette recherche. Cette perspective additionnelle a renforcé et mis en valeur nos résultats quantitatifs
This research tests to analyze if solid corporate brands create wealth for shareholders; and have risk reducing properties. Previous studies that were relating marketing with the creation of shareholder value worked on product brands. This research is based on theory of positivism; positivism states that true knowledge is based on verification. Random sampling was chosen for the quantitative part of this study, and for the qualitative section of this research we chose purposive sampling. Observation is used as the main data collection technique.13The most important contribution of this research to the field of branding is precisely the focus on corporate brand, its risk reducing and creation of wealth for shareholders. Using data between 1994 and 2008, we find strong evidence that corporations that own superior corporate brands create wealth for stakeholders of companies. Later in the qualitative part of this research we went through some fairly known cases of corporate brands – their stories and how they managed to succeed were explained and some of their branding policies were highlighted. This part is seen as qualitative validation of quantitative results through triangulation method. Conceptual frameworks and theoretical models were implemented to further analyze the qualitative cases for this research; this added perspective reinforced and supported our quantitative findings

Oggi, come nel passato, le imprese familiari interpretano un ruolo di assoluto rilievo nella quasi totalità delle economie. A livello globale generano infatti la maggior parte della ricchezza ed assumono più di due terzi di tutti gli occupati; sono quindi rilevanti non solo da punto di vista economico ma anche, e soprattutto, dal punto di vista sociale. Nella seconda metà del secolo scorso questa tipologia di imprese iniziò a suscitare interesse nella comunità scientifica, sia per il loro peso specifico sull’economia sia per la loro capacità, in determinati contesti, di mantenere un vantaggio competitivo sulle imprese non familiari; soprattutto in aree a bassa intensità di capitale, in cui sapere imprenditoriale, conoscenza e cultura accumulata da generazioni costituiscono il fattore critico di successo. Questa tesi mira ad accrescere la consapevolezza in merito alla peculiarità dei processi decisionali delle imprese familiari attive nel Nord Italia; un contesto socioeconomico tipicamente (ieri più di oggi) favorevole alla nascita e allo sviluppo di questo genere di organizzazioni. La tesi affronta due aspetti di assoluta importanza relativi all’impresa familiare: la profilazione e caratterizzazione delle imprese familiari, e l’indagine dei loro processi decisionali. Nella prima parte dell’elaborato sono esaminati gli aspetti relativi la profilazione delle imprese familiari, mentre nella seconda parte vengono esaminati i modelli decisionali adottati nelle imprese familiari; nello specifico quale stile decisionale, esperienziale o razionale, viene maggiormente utilizzato da proprietari e / o manager.

This study investigates the relationship between three visual representations (two-dimensional, three-dimensional fixed, and three-dimensional rotatable) of multidimensional data, and the subjects' ability to make predictions based on the data. Output of a momentum accounting system was simulated and graphics were rendered based on that information. An interactive computer program was developed and used to administer the laboratory experiment and collect the results. Subjects made prediction decisions based on the graphics produced for four companies. The companies were stratified based on size (high or low) and growth patterns (high or low). Each subject made predictions for one type representation for each of the four companies. Because of inconsistencies of the sample distributions for the different representations, nonparametric analyses were used to examine the data. The subjects using the three-dimensional data that could be rotated were found to provide the most accurate predictions. No differences between the treatments were found based on the subject's visual acuity, as measured by the Visual Vividness Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ). The subjects using the two-dimensional representations were found to take the least amount of time for their predictions.
Ph. D.

The research presented here will differentiate Chinese culture from that of Western cultures based upon attitudes to time. It will be argued that Chinese culture is so skewed to view wealth to meet an individual's long term goals and aspirations that in turn their attitudes to fluctuations in a stock portfolio are distinctly different from Western culture. Having had made this demarcation, it will propose an adjustment to an established theoretical model whereby this Chinese cultural trait is incorporated into quantitatively measuring utility.

As surplus economies started to amass foreign exchange reserves in the past decades, sometimes up to staggering levels, they increasingly started to look for ways to diversify and increase their returns. One type of tool that was devised for this purpose was the creation of special state investment mechanisms like Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). The use of these state tools is intensifying; indeed, most SWFs were created in the past 10 years or so. SWFs offer us a unique opportunity to observe the transforming manifestations of the role of the state in the global economy. This is crucially relevant in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. One of the most interesting empirical cases in this regard is China. Not only is China at the nexus of fundamental realignments in the global economic balance of power, it is also a strong state which owns and operates multiple SWFs. My research question stems from the observable divergence in SWFs’ behavior, more precisely, I ask: why are Chinese SWFs not behaving in the same way across the board? Through a study of four SWFs, the National Social Security Fund, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Investment Company, the China Investment Corporation and the China-Africa Development Fund, a foray into the Chinese financial/economic decision-making patterns will be made. It will be shown that the four Chinese SWFs examined here exhibit substantially dissimilar behavior. The emerging causal narrative results from the fragmentation of decision-making structures in China, and from the widening of the policy-relevant pool of actors who have a say in the management of the Chinese foreign investments. This paper argues that specific alignments and realignments of policy coalitions are the main determinants of the funds’ behavior. This conclusion sheds light on decision-making processes and power structures in China, and attempts to provide us with a novel way to understand China’s ever changing governance landscape and relation to the world. It can also suggest some potential avenues for looking at the various incarnations that SWFs can take around the world.

Family businesses and financial decision making is a growing topic of research. It is of value given the impact family businesses have on many economies. Family businesses are regarded to have it more difficult to attain feasible financing and also being led by another logic compared to non-family businesses. Characteristics attributed to family businesses are that they take non-financial values in to consideration, and aims to preserve the so called Social Emotional Wealth. Therefore this thesis aims to explore financial decision making in the context of family businesses and extend current research by looking at a new financing alternative, crowd equity. The purpose aims to be met by a qualitative study, with the FIBER model as base. Interviewing family business owners and management, and explore their reasoning linking it to crowd equity as a financing form. The findings in this study is in line with much of existing literature, concluding that the reasoning behind financial decisions are to a large extent motivated by non-financial factors, such as ownership and control of the businesses. The risk of losing control over the business by raising capital via equity financing is one argument against that form of financing. If equity financing is an alternative, then crowd equity seems to have characteristics that could be of interest for family businesses.

The purpose of this PhD thesis is to make a contribution to existing knowledge in the field of critical accounting by studying credit mechanisms and their link to income/wealth inequality in Sri Lankan society and the role of accounting technology in facilitating such mechanisms. The literature review revealed that: a) Global inequality is aggravated by the disparity of economic development which is possible only through state intervention; b) Unemployment is considered as a dilemma for economic development in developing countries by most politicians/administrators/researchers; c) In any country, around 60-70 percent of employment is generated by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and; d) Their major problem is access to credit. This research was designed to find out how the credit system works and why certain SMEs do not have adequate access to credit to develop their businesses; to provide employment; to increase the share of national income to the lower income groups; to narrow down the gap between the rich and poor within and between countries. A case study research approach was followed to extract data on real-life experiences of the research participants. Reliability of data was ensured by using various verification techniques and maximum efforts were made to balance the two extremes of validity of the research; internal and external. The extent of representation by the cases and the bank was tested, and judged as high, with 12-14 characteristics common to the Sri Lankan credit culture and banking industry respectively. Marxian critical theories were used for theoretical guidance throughout the research. The three case studies provide empirical evidence for the existence of the discriminatory nature of credit decision-making where two credit applicants were successful but a third credit applicant failed in obtaining credit. It is contended that the two successful applicants were powerful enough to approach a more powerful bank Chairperson and to obtain credit outside the normal credit rules with the support of accounting technology and using masks such as patriotism and social responsibility. The other applicant, who was initially accommodated with credit at the lower level, could not convince the credit decision-makers at the higher level with expensive professionally prepared accounting reports. This applicant was not from an influential social network and could not reach the powerful credit decision-makers informally was rejected through strict application of credit rules. Deep analysis of these facts supports the Marxian claim that credit and exploitation mechanisms work towards concentration of wealth and sustaining income inequality. Credit decisions supply money to influential individuals and it is argued that such economic power enhances the social powerbase of those individuals, which in turn reinforces the propensity to make preferential credit decisions, thereby making them richer. In contrast, a lack of money translates into powerlessness, deprivation and exclusion from social activities for the majority of the poor. In this process opportunities are lost to disadvantaged social groups and this necessarily results in poor people’s economic status remaining stagnant. These power-driven, discriminatory decision-making systems not only restrict the availability of financial capital for feasible projects, but also deny credit to potential enterprises. Further, wasting resources on unfeasible projects, while ignoring the need for nurturing potentially viable projects, are a double blow to efforts towards employment generation and economic development and therefore, are detrimental to the economic well-being of the general population. These findings provide insight for policy formulators for more productive financial capital mobility systems in Sri Lanka. It is suggested that suitable State intervention in regulating SME financing could remove such credit-related obstacles to economic development, and work towards a fair distribution of economic benefits to the people in Sri Lanka and beyond.

This research attempts to provide an explanation for the firm's choice of using either a dividend or a stock repurchase for distributing cash to its stockholders. It also provides an examination of the impact of the firm's disbursement decision on the stock market's resulting reassessment of the value of the firm. Before analyzing the disbursement decision, I examine the stock market effects of dividends and stock repurchases using an event study methodology that corrects for the possible variance change effects of cash distribution announcements. I find that the measured wealth effects are statistically significant and similar, for the most part, to that reported in earlier studies, notwithstanding increases in the variance of the abnormal returns distribution. I apply LIMDEP's full information maximum likelihood estimator (FIML) to investigate the factors influencing a firm's disbursement decision. I use proxies to represent the major theories put forward in the literature to explain firms' rationales for making cash disbursements, namely, signaling / asymmetric information, undervaluation hypothesis, agency theory, dividend clientele, corporate control, optimal capital structure theory, managerial incentives hypothesis, financial flexibility and cash flow permanence. I find that the firm's payout choice is related to the change in annual earnings per share, the residual volatility in daily stock returns prior to the distribution, the level of undervaluation, the free cash flows of the firm, the size of the firm, the extent of available managerial stock options, the average dividend yield, the volatility of operating earnings, the average daily stock return prior to announcement, the relative proportion of permanent cash flows, and the difference in the levels of permanent cash flows pre and post announcement. I evaluate the stock market impact of the disbursement choice by using a self-selectivity limited-dependent variables model. The findings indicate that while open market repurchasing firms make optimal disbursement choices, that is reflected in the reaction of the stock market to the disbursement announcement, firms using repurchase tender offers make disbursement decisions detrimental to the welfare of their stockholders. However, similar results were inconclusive with regard to firms choosing to utilize dividends as their cash payout mechanism.

This thesis responds to the question 'how can sovereign wealth funds manage ambiguity in their decision-making so as to implement substantive long-term investment programmes?' The rapid growth of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) over the past decade, due largely to booming commodity prices, has inspired optimism among many for their potential to contribute to the sustainability goals of society. SWFs are unconstrained by many of the factors that have kept pension funds from realising their potential as long-term investors and so they are well placed to make significant investments in sustainable projects with positive externalities such as infrastructure and to act as effective monitors of corporate behaviour. But many obstacles stand in the way. At the institutional level, transparency has replaced tight financial market regulation, resulting in entrenched short-termism. At the organisational level, many problems facing long-term investors are too complex to fit into traditional models of decision-making. Decentralisation is necessary to respond to this complexity but it conflicts with the coordination necessary to achieve economies of scale and scope. There may not even be an ideal outcome to coerce or incentivise agents to achieve. Taken together, these problems are understood in this thesis as ambiguity, which results from differences in interpretation and irreconcilable conflict. In contrast, most governance frameworks focus on problems of uncertainty and risk, due to missing information. This thesis has three aims. The first is to reframe the governance challenge for longterm investing in terms of managing ambiguity. Second, this thesis aims to reconcile ambiguity with legitimacy that depends on expert decision-making and provides one right answer to a clearly specified problem. Third, it provides specific examples of how ambiguity, if managed, can improve decision-making. That is, ambiguity forces us to engage with subjective reality but also provides us with a framework to do so. Ambiguity can act as a built-in adaptation mechanism to hold a coalition of diverse interests together in a rapidly changing environment, to identify synergies where others see only trade-offs and to overcome collective action problems. These constructive properties of ambiguity are explored in the four substantive chapters of this thesis, alongside specific recommendations for changes to SWF governance structures to transcend barriers to long-term investing. The first half of the thesis focuses on the earlier stages of the investment process and draws on specific examples of two SWFs. Chapter III investigates ambiguity in the Alberta Heritage Fund's inter-generational equity mandate. If managed in the form of self-reflexivity, ambiguity can contribute to overcoming the time inconsistency problem in the context of sub-national resource wealth funds. Chapter IV focuses on the irreconcilable conflict in the Norwegian Fund's ethical investment policy. It argues that agents use their discretion to interpret the policy and, in doing so, are able to align it more closely to the Fund's long-term investing mandate. The second half of the thesis extends consideration to long-term investors more broadly. Chapter V explores the delegation of shareholder engagement to portfolio managers to leverage synergies in an investment management firm. It finds that introducing ambiguity into incentive design can overcome the multi-task incentive problem. Chapter VI brings concepts explored in earlier chapters to bear on its analysis of a new market for public infrastructure assets. It argues that ambiguity provides the space necessary to bring diverse actors together to transcend collective action problems and create new institutional arrangements to support a more efficient market structure. Taken as a whole, this thesis is optimistic that, as those claiming to have the one right answer are increasingly proven wrong, ambiguity will earn its rightful place in the study and practice of finance.

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This paper examines value created through spinoffs over a period from 2002-2010. The net debt to average share price ratio and the debt to asset ratio of a company impacts the decision for this restructuring process statistically significant. The announcement of a spinoff yields abnormal returns (AR) for the stockholders of the parent. The relative size of the spin and the financial leverage correlated with the AR positively, whereas the net debt per share and the return on asset negatively. Therefore, no direct wealth transfer from the debt holders of a company to the equity holders can be derived from these results.
Esta tese examina o valor gerado através de processos de spin-off durante o período compreendido entre 2002 e 2010. Os rácios da Dívida Líquida/Preço Médio das Acções e da Dívida/Activo de uma empresa reflectem impactos estatísticos significativos na decisão deste tipo de processos de reestruturação. Assim sendo, o anúncio e decisão de se proceder a um spin-off contribui para que seja gerado um retorno anormal) (RA) para os accionistas da empresa-mãe. O tamanho relativo do spin-off e a respectiva alavancagem financeira correlacionam-se positivamente com os RA, enquanto, por outro lado, a dívida líquida por acção e a rendibilidade líquida dos activos correlacionam-se negativamente. Deste modo, não é possível verificar uma transferência de riqueza dos detentores de títulos de dívida de uma empresa para os detentores de capital próprio.

Il primo capitolo studia le decisioni di pensionamento dei lavoratori dipendenti nel settore-privato atraverso un approccio in forma quas-ridotta . seguendo il lavoro di stock e wise (1990), vengono modellate le decisioni individuali concentrandosi sugli incentivi insiti nel sistema pensionistico italiano catturate dalla ricchezza pensionistica e da altre misure di incentivo. il secondo capitolo consolida i risultati del primo e riconosce che attraverso un approccio detto esperimento naturale e l'utilizzo di variazioni esogene generate dalla riforma pensionistica del 1992 si può migliorare in termini di identificazione dell'effetto della ricchezza pensionistica sulla decisione di pensionamento. il capitolo contiene anche un insieme di simulazioni che predicono il comportamento dei lavoratori con diversi regimi pensionistici e rappresenta un test della validità predittiva del modello usato nel primo capitolo. il terzo capitolo è un'applicazione del modello option value in cui vengono stimati i parametri delle funzioni di utilità, e dove i lavoratori decidono quando andare in pensione confrontando il valore atteso di lavorare un anno aggiuntivo con il valore atteso di andare in pensione subito.
The first chapter studies the exit behaviour of private-sector employees through a simple "quasi-reduced form" approach. Starting from the seminal paper by Stock and Wise (1990), it models individual determinants of retirement choices focusing on the incentives embedded in the Italian Social Security system, captured by Social Security wealth and some incentive measures. The second chapter exploits the results of the first and it is devoted to their consolidation Using a different framework, namely that of a "natural experiment", much more can be gained in terms of identification of the relevant incentive effects by means of the exogenous variation introduced by the reform legislated in 1992. Further, the chapter contains a set of simulations in order to test the predictive validity of the results in the first chapter and to know how the exit behaviour of workers would have been under different pension regimes. The last chapter is an application of the option value model. It requires the estimation of the utility parameters of the model where workers compare the expected utility of working one more year and the expected utility of retiring immediately.

Il primo capitolo studia le decisioni di pensionamento dei lavoratori dipendenti nel settore-privato atraverso un approccio in forma quas-ridotta . seguendo il lavoro di stock e wise (1990), vengono modellate le decisioni individuali concentrandosi sugli incentivi insiti nel sistema pensionistico italiano catturate dalla ricchezza pensionistica e da altre misure di incentivo. il secondo capitolo consolida i risultati del primo e riconosce che attraverso un approccio detto esperimento naturale e l'utilizzo di variazioni esogene generate dalla riforma pensionistica del 1992 si può migliorare in termini di identificazione dell'effetto della ricchezza pensionistica sulla decisione di pensionamento. il capitolo contiene anche un insieme di simulazioni che predicono il comportamento dei lavoratori con diversi regimi pensionistici e rappresenta un test della validità predittiva del modello usato nel primo capitolo. il terzo capitolo è un'applicazione del modello option value in cui vengono stimati i parametri delle funzioni di utilità, e dove i lavoratori decidono quando andare in pensione confrontando il valore atteso di lavorare un anno aggiuntivo con il valore atteso di andare in pensione subito.
The first chapter studies the exit behaviour of private-sector employees through a simple "quasi-reduced form" approach. Starting from the seminal paper by Stock and Wise (1990), it models individual determinants of retirement choices focusing on the incentives embedded in the Italian Social Security system, captured by Social Security wealth and some incentive measures. The second chapter exploits the results of the first and it is devoted to their consolidation Using a different framework, namely that of a "natural experiment", much more can be gained in terms of identification of the relevant incentive effects by means of the exogenous variation introduced by the reform legislated in 1992. Further, the chapter contains a set of simulations in order to test the predictive validity of the results in the first chapter and to know how the exit behaviour of workers would have been under different pension regimes. The last chapter is an application of the option value model. It requires the estimation of the utility parameters of the model where workers compare the expected utility of working one more year and the expected utility of retiring immediately.

Thesis advisor: Hans de Wit
The family ownership context has been investigated across many business settings, within the manufacturing, trade, and services industries. The consensus among scholars has been that families that own and operate firms act in self-serving ways and frame organizational problems and make decisions with the primary goal of satisfying the family’s affective needs, i.e., preserve or augment what is referred to as socioemotional wealth. However, the theoretical reasoning of socioemotional wealth theory may fall apart in traditional university settings, where self-serving behaviors may lead to (pronounced) agency conflict. Universities have been long understood for their politicized governance environs in which multiple stakeholder groups have representation in decision-making. Within this reality, families involved in higher education management may be challenged to act self-servingly and protect or enhance certain socioemotional wealth. They may need to act in altruistic ways to avoid agency conflict. I investigate whether this is the case through a single, critical case study approach conducted at one family-owned or -managed university in India. I rely on what Yin (2003) refers to as “rival explanation as patterns” to test socioemotional theory relative to a rival theoretical framework. I ask the important question of whether this rival theory can address the limitations of socioemotional wealth theory when applied to the higher education context. As expected, findings generally suggest that where socioemotional wealth theory fails to capture family decision-making behaviors, the rival theory is relevant. This finding is important to consider and has several implications to theory, practice, and future research. Importantly, the findings support that current family-owned business theorizing is not enough to capture family decision-making behaviors in the context of traditional university settings
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020
Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education
Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education

How can political science account for the decision of African states to strengthen their ties with China, often at the expense of other alliances and often in the face of economic risks? This thesis explores this question in the context of relations between Ethiopia and China, especially in the context of investments made by Chinese sovereign wealth funds in the Ethiopian economy. To begin to answer this question this thesis recasts the China-Africa debate to focus on African, i.e. Ethiopian, agency. The focus is on how Ethiopia's political leaders make foreign policy decisions and on the factors that shape their preferences. This focus reveals the influence of cognitive variables on their foreign policy decisions; the influence of their guiding ideology, 'revolutionary democracy,' is especially key. An analysis of Ethiopia's formal institutions demonstrates they are inadequate to explain the policy choices of Ethiopian leaders; they have been designed to reflect the concepts of revolutionary democracy. Using the language of prospect theory, a descriptive theory of decision-making under risk, this thesis contends that Ethiopian leaders select foreign policy options by weighing their possible outcomes as gains or losses relative to revolutionary democracy as their reference frame. Ethiopian leaders sanctioned China's finance of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation despite the monopoly it gave to China and its impact on Ethiopia's debt. They formed a front company between Ethiopia and China's military industrial complexes despite its negative effects on economic development. They opened Ethiopia’s regions to Chinese capital although capital flows only to state-owned enterprises. Yet in each case, ideological objectives were advanced. This examination demonstrates how non-structural factors play a critical role in a bureaucratized state. Theoretical frameworks that account for these factors, like prospect theory, are therefore valuable to more robust understandings of Ethiopia, and Africa's, deepening relations with China.

Today’s high school students will face a host of economic problems such as the demise of the social safety net, mounting college student debt, and costly health care plans, as stated in the rationale for financial literacy provided by the Council for Economic Education’s National Standards for Financial Literacy. These problems are compounded by growing income and wealth inequality and the widespread influence of neoliberal ideology. Although one of the major goals of economics education is to teach students to make reasoned economic choices in their public and private lives and provide the skills to solve personal and social economic problems, little empirical research has been conducted on how these goals are addressed. Secondary economics education research has primarily focused on measuring students’ grasp of neoclassical economics while a separate body of literature provides theoretical critiques of that approach. This study responds to the gap presented by these separate camps by capturing the economics discourse of a high school economics and personal finance course in relation to the role of economic decision-making in a democracy, and the space to hold values discussions. Using case study methodology that included analysis of student and teacher interviews, classroom observations, the standards and official curriculum, lesson plans, and student-produced documents, the study provides deep, context-dependent knowledge about how the official curriculum is manifest in the classroom. Findings reveal that the role of economic decision-making and values discussions were given very little space. The discourse was heavily focused on the acceptance of the science and mastery of technical knowledge about personal finance for the dual purposes of preparing students to succeed on the W!SE Financial Literacy Certification Test and preparing students to navigate and succeed in a fixed economic reality firmly committed to neoclassical economics. The role of economic decision-making was diminished by the foregrounding of financial literacy over economics, which served as a mechanism of power to send the silent message that economic circumstances (such as wealth inequality) change through individual choices and that economic and social phenomena can be understood and addressed through the application of technical approaches.

Bakgrund: De enskilda privata skogsägarna är en heterogen grupp som har genomgått en förändring under de senaste åren. Olika karaktärsdrag och olika förhållanden till skogen leder till olika värden med ägandet. Studien undersöker skogsägarnas incitament och beslutsfattande genom att studera skogsägarnas socioemotionella värden med hjälp av SEW-teorin. Syfte: Studien förklarar (1) vilka förutsättningar hos skogsägare som leder till socioemotionellt välstånd och (2) hur det socioemotionella välståndet påverkar beslutsfattande.  Metod: Studien baseras på en kvantitativ tvärsnittsdesign för att undersöka studiens syfte. Hypoteserna har utvecklats utifrån SEW-teorin och forskning kring skogsägande. För att testa hypoteserna har en enkätundersökning genomförts i samarbete med Södra Skogsägarna. Slutsats: Studien bevisar att SEW-teorin är en applicerbar teori på skogsägare. Det visar att det socioemotionella välståndet påverkar skogsägarnas incitament och beslutsfattande. Studiens resultat visar även att deras socioemotionella och ekonomiska värden ökar tillsammans. Studien finner vissa indikatorer på faktorer som genererar SEW samt finner flera effekter av SEW på skogsverksamheten.
Background: The private forest owners are a heterogeneous group that has undergone a change under the past years. They have different characteristics and different relationships to their forest, that leads to their values with their ownership. The study examines the incentives and decision-making process through socioemotional values of forest owners using the SEW-theory. Purpose: The study explains (1) the conditions of forest owners that lead to socioemotional wealth and (2) how socioemotional wealth affects decision making. Method: The study is based on a quantitative cross-sectional design to investigate the purpose of the study. The hypotheses have been developed based on SEW-theory and research on forest ownership, a survey was conducted in collaboration with Södra Skogsägarna.   Conclusions: The study proves that SEW-theory is an applicable theory for forest owners. It shows that socioemotional wealth affects the incentive and decision making of forest owners. The results of the study also shows that their socioemotional and economic values increases together. The study find some indication of factors generating SEW and some initial evidence of effects on the forestry orchestrated by SEW.

碩士
國立聯合大學
管理碩士學位學程
97
This study examines the determinants of mutual fund mergers and liquidation, and discusses their subsequent wealth impacts on shareholders. It’s found that, in comparison with surviving funds, liquidated funds and funds merged within the same family display worse performance, smaller assets under management, much more cash outflows, being younger ones. When compared liquidated funds with merged ones, liquidated funds are worse-performing, smaller in size, with greater fund outflows, and younger. Except for the characteristics of fund itself, the determinants of fund exit decisions also include fund numbers in the family, numbers of corresponding objectives and flows of corresponding objectives. Acquiring fund shareholders experience a significant deterioration in performance subsequent to the merger activity. In contrast, the target fund shareholders appear to benefit from these combinations, as their fund’s performance improves in the year after the merger. The net asset flows continue to remain negative for the combined fund in the year following the merger. Expense ratio of combined funds will decline in the second postmerger year because of economics of scale after the acquisition.

To date various studies have been conducted on family business behaviour and how they survive around the world. This is owning to the high prevalence of family businesses in countries around the world and as a result the contribution family businesses make to factors such as GDP and employment. Sustainable family businesses that experience growth and diversification are therefore important in the economies that they operate in. Family businesses are however said to be risk averse when diversification opportunities arise, favouring to forgo growth in favour of the safe keeping of the families’ wealth, known as Socio-Emotional Wealth. This study seeks to discover how family businesses grow by way of diversification and given the dynamics of families and the businesses they run, how do different generations perceive such growth. Thirteen successful family businesses took part in this study, which was exploratory and qualitative in design. Using Socio-Emotional Wealth as a lens for understanding family business decision-making we are able to discover how this framework influences the preservation mind-set. Five themes emerged from the interview data indicating the importance families place on these themes, which included growth; diversification; autonomy; environmental constructs and generational perceptions. The themes that emerged influence the way in which the family business sees growth and ultimately decisions relating to Socio-Emotional Wealth.
Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014.
lmgibs2015
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
MBA
Unrestricted

The present dissertation deals with selected aspects of corporate governance and personnel management and provides an in-depth analysis of capital markets’ perception of these issues and the effects on shareholder wealth. Subjects of the investigation are the role and effects of gender diversity on corporate boards and female leadership, CEO overconfidence and corporate layoff decisions. Chapter 2 offers a comprehensive overview of existing research on the effects of an increased female representation on corporate boards as well as stronger participation of women in leadership on firm performance and thus shareholder wealth. The chapter reviews empirical evidence from 44 studies published between 1996 and 2014. The guiding question of the review is if previous research does provide empirical evidence for economic benefits of increased female representation in top management positions. No uniform picture emerges from almost 20 years of research on the relationship between gender diversity on corporate boards and on TMTs and firm performance. There is no clear trend towards a general economic advantageousness of increased female leadership and performance, the findings are ambiguous. While 15 studies find empirical evidence for a positive relationship, five studies report a negative relationship. Several studies report mixed evidence regarding the relationship (13 studies) and a substantial number of studies cannot establish any link between gender diversity and financial performance (14 studies). A wide variety of different regression models is applied, furthermore events study methodology or interaction analysis. Findings suggest that the relationship between female representation in top management positions and financial firm performance appears to be more complex than originally assumed. The answer to my research question is thus: it depends. Certain boundary conditions and moderating factors appear to influence the relationship. First, performance effects vary between different business sectors. Female representation in top management is associated with better performance if the firm is operating in a complex business environment. Positive effects are observed in particular in the areas of technology and telecommunications. Second, the firm’s strategic orientation is a decisive factor. Firms with a strategic focus on innovation benefit from increased gender diversity in TMTs with regard to performance and firms with a strong growth orientation benefit with respect to productivity. Third, women’s education is a factor of relevance. Performance effects are positive and stronger for female CEOs with a university degree. Fourth, performance effects depend on the quality of a firm’s corporate governance. Gender diversity on the board has a positive impact on the performance of firms that otherwise have weak governance and shareholder rights as intensified monitoring could enhance firm value. Fifth, it needs a critical mass of women in order to realize the potential benefits from increased gender diversity. There is evidence for a curvilinear instead of a simple, linear relationship between gender diversity and firm performance. Although there appears to be no generally applicable rule for the “right” level of gender diversity in upper echelons, critical mass theory gives an indication. The reported evidence on a U-shaped link means that it needs a critical mass of about 30 percent women on the board in order to realize potential benefits stemming from a gender-diverse board. This finding lends support to the statutory gender quotas for supervisory boards at levels between 30 and 40 percent. Against the background of the statutory gender quotas for supervisory boards, chapter 3 analyzes the acceptance level of the quota in firms in German-speaking Europe. It further examines compliance with corporate governance codes’ recommendations and industry’s objectives for the promotion of female leadership. Areas under investigation also include capital markets’ perception of corporate gender diversity initiatives, the major drivers for the development of programs and the perspective on the subject of diversity. For this purpose, an anonymous survey among investor relations professionals in Germany, Switzerland and Austria is conducted, which yields almost 100 analyzable data sets. Findings suggest that staff diversity remains a niche topic for capital markets. Primarily specialized investors and rating agencies with a focus on sustainability, CSR or ESG make inquiries relating to workforce diversity. Accordingly, corporate initiatives for increased gender diversity in executive positions are believed to have no impact on external company valuation by capital market participants. The vast majority of companies does not consider diversity issues under economic aspects but predominantly under aspects of fairness and equality. Most influential external stakeholders driving diversity initiatives are government authorities and regulators, women’s and interest associations and the media. The general acceptance of the quota from investor relations is rather low. Half of the companies have not implemented specific promotion programs for women in leadership and almost two thirds of all surveyed companies have not set any planning targets. Chapter 4 shows the potential adverse effects of failures in corporate governance by the example of CEO overconfidence. Within the scope of a case study, it traces the development of (male) overconfidence on the part of CEO Hans-Martin Rueter with fatal consequences for the firm CONERGY AG, eventually leading to its insolvency. The comprehensive content analysis of press reports, official company documents and analyst reports yields several indicators of optimism and overconfidence. The content analysis of press reports clearly shows that Rueter is portrayed as optimistic and confident. Furthermore, he is described as charismatic, eloquent and persuasive while credible and trustworthy at the same time. Media praise both indicates and will foster overconfidence. Moreover, heightened acquisitiveness in conjunction with large amounts of paid goodwill can be observed. The paid premiums are at least partly attributable to valuation errors and hubris on the part of the bidder. Rueter was presumably overly optimistic about potential synergies and overestimated increases in value. In addition, there are several promoting factors for optimism and overconfidence. The state-funded boom of the German and European solar sector in the first decade of the new millennium led to very successful years for CONERGY. It is most likely that Rueter himself claimed full credit for the organizational successes and it was also credited to him externally, for instance by research analysts. This attribution encourages CEO overconfidence and inter-organizational prestige. A very important source of overconfidence, however, is weak board vigilance. The supervisory board has the decisive duty to monitor and control management’s actions. It should be aware of the potentially serious risks of extreme managerial overconfidence and it must exercise control. The supervisory board, with Rueter’s uncle being Chairman and his brother being a board member, did not effectively constrain the CEO’s excessive expansion. Four major effects of this expansion in combination caused CONERGY’s existential crisis in 2007 and 2008. First, personnel and infrastructure costs rose rapidly due to the newly founded subsidiaries as well as poorly targeted acquisitions. Second, the growing complexity on the organizational level as well as on the technology and product level became hardly manageable. Third, increasing cash requirements and poor working capital management caused precarious shortfalls in liquidity, nearly resulting in insolvency. Finally, CONERGY failed repeatedly in procurement. CONERGY did not recover from the crisis and filed for insolvency in 2013. Chapter 5 provides an analysis of the wealth effects of layoff decisions by banks. Large-scale layoffs are personnel measures that are executed proactively or reactively for various reasons. The effect on stock prices and thus on the shareholders’ equity is examined by applying event study methodology to a sample of 210 layoff announcements issued by banks in Western Europe and the United States between 2004 and 2014. Results refute the thesis of a stakeholder conflict in which several stakeholders are affected, but only shareholders benefit from the staff cuts at the expense of employees. Capital markets on the whole respond to layoff announcements with significant negative abnormal returns in event windows up to eleven days around the announcement date, supporting the declining investment opportunities hypothesis. From the capital markets’ perspective, the announcements of planned redundancies convey negative information about a bank’s current status and also its future prospects including poor investment or growth opportunities or uncertain future cash flows. Banks belong to the financial services industry, their employees are their key source of earnings and their main links to the customers. Capital markets appear to realize and assess the risk associated with the loss of human capital. The detriments associated with the mass layoffs hence weigh more heavily compared with the potential benefits from cost savings. Solely dismissals of employees from the investment banking division are considered as positive by capital markets, most likely owed to the associated reduction of risks and the substantial cost savings due to the high salaries in this division. Furthermore, the negative share price reaction is less pronounced if the planned layoffs are perceived as a proactive measure aiming at reducing costs or increasing efficiency but more pronounced if they are perceived as reactive to adverse market conditions or poor past financial performance. In summary, the results suggest that layoff announcements by banks generally have a decreasing effect on shareholder value. Hence, the owners of the firm in the short term do not benefit from collective dismissals at the expense of employees. In summary, corporate governance and strategic personnel management can impact firm value substantially. This is supported by the evidence provided across the four sections of this dissertation. The effects can be positive or negative. This dissertation shows under which boundary conditions increased gender diversity on corporate boards and in top management teams can but does not necessarily have positive effects on firm value. It also outlines associated potentials for improvement of quality and effectiveness of corporate governance. In contrast, the present work discusses the risks of weak board vigilance, thereby emphasizing the relevance of corporate governance. Failures in monitoring and control through the supervisory board can severely affect firm value. Finally, this dissertation focuses on the personnel measure of layoffs and provides evidence for negative effects on firm value and thus shareholder wealth.

In this thesis we investigate whether health insurance decisions can be explained by loss aversion. We use a model of reference dependent preferences as developed by Koszegi and Rabin (2006) to show that under loss aversion there are different maximum willingness to pay for private health insurance. We do not endogenise the reference point. Instead we attempt to alter the reference point through framing in a laboratory setting, in a manner which is consistent with the original Tversky and Kahneman (1981) formulation of prospect theory. We find that the framing effect did not result in a difference between the proportion of subjects who purchased private health insurance. We do find that subjects make decisions closer to that of an expected utility maximiser in the treatment which is framed such that the reference point is consistent with having private health insurance, where there is a loss in health and a gain in wealth from giving up the insurance. Our result highlights the importance of framing for governments or policy makers who are attempting to influence individuals behaviour.
Thesis (M.Phil.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Economics, 2016.

碩士
崑山科技大學
企業管理研究所
102
The case study adopts interviews to understand the family condition, current income and expenses, the present state of investment allocation, risk planning and the present value of assets, and understand the caser’s five financial goalsin his life planning. We use wealth management software -KISS to forecast caser’s future cash flow. First, we use spending stimulation diagram to understand the current situation and proposethree adjusted projects. And then, trial balance caser’s cash flow, asset change position, and degree of risk tolerance. The research adopts the present value, future value, present value for an annuity, future value for an annuity, and asset allocation of the concept in time value of money. At last, we provide different proposals, analyze and compare each adjusted proposals to meet the caser’s needs.We adopt appropriate financial instruments (insurance, funds, stocks, futures, options ... etc) to assist caserto reach his financial goals in his life cycle, and make adjustments according to track conditions.

碩士
德明財經科技大學
服務業經營管理研究所
97
The financial tsunami has brought significant influence by structured note of bank commission in 2008 and everyone points finger and blame the financial consultant at first line, but the wealth management is still in need by general and the trend is growing as usual. However, the quality evaluation of wealth management is in its early stage and without explicit identification in present, and the causal order also becomes different through the different role’s evaluation. Therefore, the criteria of each evaluation are not consistently. This study is using the conception of GAP and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) evaluation model for the service quality of wealth management, since the dependent relationship of elevating aspects and factors. The evaluative questionnaire will be deeply developed in the study in order to realize the evaluation gap among the consumer, consultant and bank managers, and then proposed and build the model of FAHP to evaluate the wealth management system. This study will also analyze the uncertainty psychological cognition behind the service, and hope this can be a decision tool for improving the service quality of wealth management. Keywords: Wealth management, service quality, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP)

碩士
國立臺灣大學
經濟學研究所
106
This paper uses a natural experiment to estimate the causal effect of wind- fall gains on assets allocation decision. Using administrative data on Taiwan lottery winners, we provide evidence about unexpected income results in ex- ogenous variation for wealth. Trying to compare two groups, one is that win- ners won between 2,000 to 5,000 New Taiwan Dollars (NTD) and the other group is that winners won over NTD 1 million. We have four key findings. First, winners who won over NTD 1 million(mean of prizes is NTD 22.5 mil- lion) increases significantly in total wealth. Second, raising in total wealth is mainly driven by increasing in estates wealth. Third, prizes over NTD 10 million has positive effect on wealth, however, prizes between NTD1 million to NTD 10 million do not affect on wealth significantly. Finally, winners do not participate in stock market after they won big prizes.

碩士
朝陽科技大學
財務金融系碩士班
94
The wealth management service is one of the most profitable and potential assets for the banking industry and financial world. However, the market of wealth management service of Taiwan is not as blossomy as that of the America. One of the important reasons is that the customer’s banking and investments can not be consolidated through the diversity of service quality offered by the financial planners and investment advisors. The aim of this study is to construct a dedicated decision making model of mutual fund for customized asset arrangement and portfolio management. Techniques including Genetic Algorithm and Fuzzy Theory are integrated into the model to match the financial investor''s requirements. Through the regulative setting, which designed by this model, to help investors to achieve the top target of wealth management. This model offers a high degree of integration with the artificial intelligence techniques; therefore, helping users modify their clients’ portfolios dynamically to achieve the expectable goals. According the wealth management decision support model to simulate ten investors, this model can obtain the annual rate of return between 13.66% and 34.53%. And the average of annual rate of returns 24.22% is three times as TAIEX.

碩士
朝陽科技大學
財務金融系碩士班
91
At the moment of listing, companies listed at Taiwan Stock Exchange generally speaking are financially sound. However, due to changes in business environment or management team, financial crisis may still occur. The present study is therefore motivated to examine empirically the impact of corporate reorganization on stockholder wealth on the basis of stock price movements for the following two reasons: First, the law of corporate reorganization is primarily meant to protect the interests of shareholders. Second, the availability of daily stock prices provides us with an unambiguous estimate of the market value of shareholder wealth. After meticulously collecting the largest possible sample of reorganization-filing cases covering the period from the promulgation of corporate reorganization law in 1966 until 2002, the final sample includes 22 reorganization-filing listed firms─among them, 15 firms are approved and 7 firms are dismissed, by the court, respectively. The primary empirical findings are as follows: For the first event day of reorganization-filing, based on the price movement in its neighborhood, the null hypothesis that no systematic difference in rate of changes of stock prices of the filing firms, before and after the filing, cannot be rejected. In other words, the notion of “asset rebirth” has not gained empirical support. For the second event day of court decision, based on the observation of both stock price movements and capital market estimates in its neighborhood, the approved group as expected has fared better when compared with the dismissed group. In other words, if the alternative is dismissal of petition for reorganization, we cannot reject the view that the court’s approval of corporate reorganization plan is beneficial to shareholders.

碩士
元智大學
企業管理學系
93
Global economy environment has rapidly changed in recent decades, and therefore financial industry must face more and more difficult and arduous competition. In the condition, financial managers actively develop diversified financial services to prevent losing competitive advantage. As a result of the tendency, wealth management service has become emerging and potential business. For wealth management business, managers should understand purchase decision making of target customers. To go a step further, wealth management banks could provide proper services and set up marketing strategy efficiently. According to literature review, we consider differences of customers’ purchase motives and individuals have impacts on information search, then information search also have impacts on pre-purchase evaluation. About research samples, we cooperate with one domestic bank and survey their customers who have joined wealth management service. In research methodology, we use regression analysis to verify path paradigm of the research model. After data analysis, we find that depth of customer information search is affected by financial, non-financial motives and subject knowledge, and breadth of customer information search is affected by non-financial motives and subject knowledge. Besides, we find that depth of customer information search has an impact on evaluation of service product and service environment, and furthermore breadth of customer information search has an impact on evaluation of service interaction. In practice, managers and financial commissioners could understand different processes of customers’ purchase decision making by way of the findings to set up effective business strategy and to provide services which customers need.

碩士
崑山科技大學
企業管理研究所
107
This research responds to the rise of financial technology applications in recent years, such as mobile communications, social networking sites, the internet, big data analytics and cloud technology, has rapidly evolved, and smart mobile devices and mobile internet popularization, changing the behavior patterns and lifestyles of the general public. In addition, this trend is also affecting the financial industry and practitioners. First of all, in this financial service innovation, the emergence of robotic financial advisors has become a huge impact on the traditional wealth management business. The beginning of financial technology is a problem that the financial industry and practitioners must face in the future. How to use technology to assist in wealth management, rather than just assisting sales, will be the key to the survival of the financial industry and practitioners. This study is to explore the practical operation of the core family case, and introduce how to apply the "KEYs Financial Network", an online version of wealth management software to provide integrated and comprehensive wealth management planning services, and cooperate with the six processes of wealth management, which assist the processes from the process of “analysing the general financial situation of customers and the needs of specific life goals” to the process of “developing customer financial planning books”. Wealth management practitioners focus on customer wealth management needs and conduct analytical marketing through KEYs software analysis. After understand the current situation of the family and the funding gap, how to use KEYs software to find appropriate financial products for financial and asset allocation, and propose appropriate solutions to help customers achieve the four goals of wealth management, wealth saving, wealth creation, wealth preservation and wealth transfer. Achieve the purpose of financial product sales, so that customers and operators achieve a win-win situation.

碩士
南台科技大學
高階主管企管碩士班
94
ABSTRACT Because the study about marketing ethics of wealth management in Taiwan was so few that we couldn’t know the ethics decision-making process level and difference of the wealth management marketers .Based on Jones’ (1991) issue contingent model, we attempted to study how should the moral intensity and contingent factors influence wealth management marketers. Purposes of this study involve: 1. Develop a valid tool to investigate the ethical decision-making process of wealth management marketers in Taiwan. 2. Study the influences of moral intensity and contingent factors on ethical decision-making process. 3. Try to explore the relation between stages of ethical decision-making process. After many times interview and expert discussion and tests. The studier developed 4 scenarios that fit the study purpose. The sampling frame is the marketers of financial enterprises wealth management in Taiwan. The analysis of this study includes: general statistics of moral intensity and ethical decision-making, correlation analysis and regression analysis between these two variables, and ANOVA analysis of the contingent factors and ethical decision-making. Finally the studier got the following conclusions: 1. In most scenarios the six moral intensity variables could be extracted to two factors that called potential harms and social pressure. 2. Moral intensity positively correlated ethical decision-making, and it was a good regression predictor of ethical decision-making. 3. Contingent factors affected the ethical decision-making. 4. There were positive correlation between stages of ethical decision-making Besides, this study had the following implications for managers: 1. Managers can adopt the tools and survey data as a scale tool to check the ethical levels of the employed. 2. Managers should increase the ethics training courses to the employed.

Modern financial asset pricing theory is a broad, and at times, complex field. The literature review in this study covers many of the asset pricing techniques including factor models, random walk models, correlation models, Bayesian methods, autoregressive models, moment-matching models, stochastic jumps and mean reversion models. An important topic in finance is portfolio opti-misation with respect to risk and reward such as the mean variance optimisation introduced by Markowitz (1952). This study covers optimisation techniques such as single period mean variance optimisation, optimisation with risk aversion, multi-period stochastic programs, two-fund separa- tion theory, downside optimisation techniques and multi-period optimisation such as the Bellman dynamic programming model. The question asked in this study is, in the context of investing for South African individuals in a multi-asset portfolio, whether an active investment strategy is signi cantly di erent from a passive investment strategy. The passive strategy is built using stochastic programming with moment matching methods for non-Gaussian asset class distributions. The strategy is optimised in a framework using a downside risk metric, the conditional variance at risk. The active strategy is built with forward forecasts for asset classes using the time-varying transitional-probability Markov regime switching model. The active portfolio is finalised by a dynamic optimisation using a two-stage stochastic programme with recourse, which is solved as a large linear program. A hypothesis test is used to establish whether the results of two strategies are statistically different. The performance of the strategies are also reviewed relative to multi-asset peer rankings. Lastly, we consider whether the findings reveal information on the degree of effi ciency in the market place for multi-asset investments for the South African investor.
Operations Management
M. Sc. (Operations Research)

This case study is based on Difel, a small book publisher and family business. In a time of deep financial complications, family conflicts and unaligned views regarding the company’s path are jeopardizing its continuation. This case is intended to demonstrate that decision-making and direction setting can be hard tasks in family businesses, as well as the impact of socioemotional wealth and the importance of procedural justice. The teaching note provides guidance in order to accurately present this case in a classroom. It incorporates several discussion questions and its respective answers, which connect the case to relevant family business content and theory.

A presente tese pretende definir uma Proposta de metodologia de investimento para aconselhamento patrimonial a investidores de património elevado, estabelecendo um modelo que permite a definição de carteiras óptimas e uma metodologia para caracterização do Perfil do investidor em termos de risco e preferências de investimento. O trabalho de investigação foi estruturado tendo emconta 3 objectivos. Primeiro, estabelecer um modelo que permita definircarteiras óptimas do ponto de vista da maximização da Utilidade de um investidor de Património elevado, assumindo-se como restrição um portfolio composto por um activo sem risco e uma carteira de activos com risco com variância mínima e exclusão de possibilidade deefectuar short sellingdos activos com risco. Segundo, com base na evidência empírica recolhida junto de um conjunto de investidores de Património elevado, estimar uma função que permita definir o coeficiente de aversão ao risco em função do Perfil de Risco DMIF dos investidores património elevado. Terceiro, definir parâmetros personalizados para caracterizar as preferências dos investidores e testar se são estatisticamente significativos para explicar o seu grau de aversão ao risco, permitindo tirar conclusões empiricamente testadas que possam ser utilizadas na indústria de Private Bankingpara aprofundamento do conhecimento dos seus clientes e aconselhamento das carteiras mais adequadas a cada investidor. Relativamente ao objectivo 1 aplicou-se o modelo àscaracterísticas dos investidores High Net Worth Individuals(HNWI) e Ultra High Net Worth Individuals(UHNWI) da amostra, considerando-se como restrição de activos com riscopara constituição de carteiras óptimas o conjunto das acções que compunham o índice DAX 30 a30 de Julho de 2010. A definição das carteiras óptimas de investimento efectuou-se através da identificação das rentabilidades esperadas e desvios padrão, bem como dos pesos dos activos que devem constituir cada uma das carteiras. No que diz respeito aos objectivos 2e 3 efectuou-se um tratamento estatístico adequado dos dados recolhidos e realização de testes estatísticos relativamente à significância das hipóteses a testar. Verifica-se que a Metodologia de investimento proposta se adapta às características específicas de cada investidor particular, produzindo combinações de activos que simultaneamente maximizam a utilidade do investidore a eficiência das carteiras, contribuindo para reduzir o gapentre expectativas do investidor e carteiras de investimento que lhes são apresentadas pelos profissionais da industria de private banking. Por outro lado, definem-se as características mais adequadas para estimar o coeficiente de aversão ao risco deste tipo de investidores, tendo como base a investigação desenvolvida por Chabbra (2005). Estes inputspodem ser utilizados pela indústria de private bankingpara convenientemente definir o perfil dos investidores,aprofundar o seu conhecimento e constituir carteiras customizadas à sua base de clientes.
This thesis aims to define an Investment Methodology to assess High Net Worth investor’s wealth management by structuring an investment optimization model and a methodology to define an investor’s profile in terms of risk and investment preferences. Our research focused on 3 specific objectives: Firstly, to define a model which could generate efficient portfolios that maximize High Net Worth investor’s utility, excluding the possibilityof short sellingand considering as available assets for the optimization, a risk-free asset and a portfolio of risky assets. Secondly, based on empirical evidence from a sampleof High Net Worth investors, to estimate a function that allows for the definition of risk aversion coefficients based on the investor’s MIFID Risk Profile. Thirdly, to define the appropriate personalized parameters to characterise investor’s preferences and to verify if these parameters are statistically significant to explain investor’s risk aversion coefficients. By doing so, we are able to draw empirically tested conclusions which can be used by private bankingprofessionals to appropriately detail client knowledge and propose the most adequate investment portfoliosto each personalised investor. In order to achieve the objective 1, we used a sample of High Net Worth Individuals(HNWI) e Ultra High Net Worth Individuals(UHNWI) and regarded the DAX 30 members on July 30 th 2010 as restraints of risky assets. The optimal portfolios were identified by their expected returns and standard deviations, and weigths of each asset. Concerning objectives 2 and 3, we carried out an appropriate statistical analysis of the data and also statistical tests to the significance of each hypothesis. We’ve noted that the proposed investment methodology suits all the specific characteristics of each investor, creating combinations of assets which maximize both investor’s utility and portfolio efficiency, while contributing to reduce the gap between investor’s expectations and investment portfolios which tend to be presented tothem by private banking professionals purely from a market perspective. On the other hand, we’ve defined the most adequate features to estimate risk aversion coefficients of this type of investors, based on research undertaken by Chabbra (2005). These inputs can be used by the private banking industry to conveniently define investor’s profiles, to broaden it’s knowledge and to offer customized portfolios for each client.