Browsing by Title
-
Bennett, Patrick (Frederiksberg, 2016)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: With a limited budget and resources, governments must decide how to allocate funds across a variety of factors which benefit society such as education, crime deterrence, and public safety. Each increase in spending on one area comes with the knowledge that this money cannot be spent on social problems in another area. As such, externalities and unexpected spillover effects impact the costs and benefits of public spending to society and may have large and meaningful implications on how to most effectively allocate resources across a multitude of outcomes. For example, an increase in education corresponds to an increase in the opportunity cost of engaging in criminal activity, decreasing the probability an individual commits crime. Likewise, loss of employment decreases the opportunity cost of engaging in criminal activity, increasing the probability an individual commits crime. Discrimination towards immigrants can impact their employment prospects which, in turn, impacts their decision to further pursue education. Identifying how these individual level factors have an impact on society is key to informing and designing effective public policy. This Ph.D. thesis, entitled “Essays in Education, Crime, and Job Displacement”, analyzes the determinants and social implications of these three factors. While independent, each essay within this thesis examines the impact of factors such as education, in terms of reduced crime, job loss, in terms of increased crime, and discrimination, in terms of its impact on the educational attainment of immigrants, on society. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9308 Files in this item: 1
Patrick Bennett.pdf (3.850Mb) -
Nielsen, Steen (Frederiksberg, 2000)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This dissertation adresses various issues regarding the functioning of financial markets. It consists of introduction and five independent chapters of which the first four are empirical and the last one is theoretical. The introduction provides a brief background on some of the data used in subsequent chapters and a discussion of the main results of the dissertation URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7935 Files in this item: 1
Steen_Nielsen.pdf (17.09Mb) -
Evidence from Danish Micro DataSchultz, Esben Anton (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis consists of four empirical essays within the broad field of modern labor economics. All four essays are self-contained and can be read independently of the others. Chapter 1 investigates the distinct effects on information technology and communication technology on firm’s skill demand. Chapter 2 studies whether the observed wage gab between majors in human arts and other fields are caused by their education per se or by selection. Chapter 3 examines taxable income responses to variation in marginal tax rates. Chapter 4 analyzes the effect of income taxation on the international migration of top earners. Each chapter provides an independent and separate analytical contribution to their specific field. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8442 Files in this item: 1
Esben_Anton_Schultz.pdf (4.890Mb) -
Gjedsted Nielsen, Mads (Frederiksberg, 2014)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The rst essay examines the relationship between publicly and privately traded commercial real estate and macroeconomic risk. To represent publicly traded real estate, I use exchange listed US Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), and to proxy for direct and privately traded real estate, I use a transaction based index (TBI) based on the data in the NCREIF database. Because the fundamental asset of the two investment types are the same, it seems reasonable to assume that they should be related in the long run. In the short run there are, however, several investment-vehicle speci c reasons why this need not be the case. For example, REITs are publicly listed on stock exchanges, and are thus expected to share a lot of commonalities with other publicly traded stocks. This is in fact also found by Goetzmann and Ibbotson [1990], Ross and Zisler [1991], and Myer and Webb [1994]. The fact that REITs are traded on exchanges makes them more liquid than direct real estate investments, and investors might therefore accept a lower risk premium for holding REITs, than for holding direct real estate. However, the lower contemporaneous correlation between direct real estate and the general stock market gives direct real estate a diversi cation bene t that may make investors accept a lower risk premium for investing in direct real estate. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9035 Files in this item: 1
Mads_Gjedsted_Nielsen.pdf (1.841Mb) -
Miric, Milan (Frederiksberg, 2015)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: While digital industries are an increasingly important area of economic activity, the underlying structural features of such settings differ fundamentally from more conventional brick-and-mortar industries. Yet, little is understood about how some of these characteristics influence the process by which market actors create and capture value. In this thesis, I look at several attributes of digital industries (non-monetary motivations, freemium business models, network effects, digital design and digital content) and consider how these influence value creation and capture. While each paper looks at a specific question, the overarching contribution of this dissertation is to help explain how the unique set of conditions which characterize digital industries influence the behavior of market actors. The first paper looks at how competition affects the innovative output of individuals motivated by non-monetary rewards. Specifically, I contrast how competition affects the innovative output of ’unpaid” individuals motivated by non-monetary rewards relative to ’paid’ or profit seeking individuals motivated by monetary rewards, both in terms of the rate and direction of innovative activity. I find that an increase in the number of competitors has a stronger negative effect on the innovative output of paid individuals compared to unpaid individuals. However, I find that as competition increases unpaid producers are less likely to reuse existing components, suggesting that they develop products which are more uncertain but can potentially lead to technological breakthroughs. Alternatively, as competition increases paid producers are more likely to reuse existing components, suggesting that they develop products which are less uncertain but also less likely to lead to breakthrough innovations. The results of this paper suggest that as competition increases, a division of labour emerges in digital industries between unpaid individuals which develop uncertain and novel innovations, and paid individuals which reuse many of these components to develop their own innovations. This contributes to both the literature on technology platforms and the literature that has looked at the recombinant nature of technological innovation. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9205 Files in this item: 1
Milan Miric.pdf (2.776Mb) -
Stenbo Nielsen, Mads (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The thesis consists of three essays that cover different aspects of correlation modelling in corporate default risk. Each essay is self-contained and can be read independently. Essay I: Correlation in corporate defaults: Contagion or conditional independence? Essay II: Systematic and idiosyncratic default risk in synthetic credit markets. Essay III: Credit spreads across the business cycle. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8370 Files in this item: 1
Mads_Stenbo_Nielsen.pdf (5.032Mb) -
Bajlum, Claus (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This Ph.D. thesis consists of three self-contained chapters, which can be read independently. The chapters are interrelated through their use of structural credit risk models and a credit derivative known as the Credit Default Swap (CDS). Chapter 1 estimates the impact of accounting transparency on the term structure of CDS spreads for a large cross-section of firms. Chapter 2 analyzes the use of CDS spreads in a convergence-type trading strategy known as capital structure arbitrage. Finally Chapter 3 estimates the time-series behaviour of the credit risk premium in the market for Credit Default Swaps. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6520 Files in this item: 1
claus_bajlum.pdf (1.513Mb) -
Jessen, Lasse J. (Frederiksberg, 2016)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis consists of three independent chapters on the elicitation of individual discount rates and on the estimation of gambling prevalence in Denmark. The first chapter, “Discount Rate Sensitivity to Background Consumption and Consumption Smoothing,” studies the sensitivity of individual discount rates with respect to background consumption and consumption smoothing. I use simulated choice data from standard decision tasks in time preference experiments and show that individual discount rates are sensitive to assumptions with respect to background consumption and consumption smoothing if the utility function is non-linear and exogenous. However, if discount rates and the utility function are elicited jointly, discount rates are robust to assumptions on time-invariant background consumption and consumption smoothing. The analysis clarifies mixed conclusions from previous studies and indicates which elicitation methods provide robust estimates of individual discount rates. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9325 Files in this item: 1
Lasse_J_Jessen.pdf (3.019Mb) -
Bruun, Mark (Frederiksberg, 2016)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This dissertation addresses the prediction of corporate earnings. The thesis aims to examine whether the degree of precision in earnings forecasts can be increased by basing them on historical financial ratios. Furthermore, the intent of the dissertation is to analyze whether accounting standards affect the accuracy of analysts’ earnings forecasts. Finally, the objective of the dissertation is to investigate how the stock market is affected by the accuracy of corporate earnings projections. The dissertation contributes to a deeper understanding of these issues. First, it is shown how earnings forecasts can be generated based on historical timeseries patterns of financial ratios. This is done by modeling the return on equity and the growth-rate in equity as two separate but correlated timeseries processes which converge to a long-term, constant level. Empirical results suggest that these earnings forecasts are not more accurate than the simpler forecasts based on a historical timeseries of earnings. Secondly, the dissertation shows how accounting standards affect analysts’ earnings predictions. Accounting conservatism contributes to a more volatile earnings process, which lowers the accuracy of analysts’ earnings forecasts. Furthermore, the dissertation shows how the stock market’s reaction to the disclosure of information about corporate earnings depends on how well corporate earnings can be predicted. The dissertation indicates that the stock market’s reaction to the disclosure of earnings information is stronger for firms whose earnings can be predicted with higher accuracy than it is for firms whose earnings can not be predicted with the same degree of accuracy. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9298 Files in this item: 1
Mark_Bruun.pdf (2.215Mb) -
Amore, Mario Daniele (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The effect of corporate governance and managers on the value of companies has received great attention in the recent public debate. In the academic research, this increased attention has been associated with an effort to develop finer conceptual frameworks and analytical techniques to assess how governance and financial characteristics influence corporate policies and profitability. While theoretical models represent a successful approach under specific hypotheses, the econometric analysis of corporate governance and managerial characteristics has proven to be extremely challenging. Because governance and managerial characteristics are equilibrium outcomes largely determined by the firm itself, it is methodologically difficult to separate out their determinants from their consequences to infer causal effects. Since its infancy the empirical corporate governance and corporate finance research has faced this problem, which is often responsible for mixed empirical results. In my dissertation, I adopt a common methodological framework developed in the “program evaluation” literature to shed new light on the effects of governance and managerial characteristics on a variety of corporate policies and, ultimately, firm performance. In particular, I estimate a class of difference-in-differences models deriving the empirical identifications from policy changes that generate “quasi-natural experiments”. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8451 Files in this item: 1
Mario_Daniele_Amore.pdf (1.242Mb) -
Zhou, Haoyong (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The dissertation examines corporate performance and capital structure of family firms, contributing to the limited empirical research on family firms. Family firms are prevalent in national economies all over the world. It is the prevalence that makes family firms receive increasing attentions from academia. The dissertation consists of an introduction and three chapters. Each chapter is an independent paper. The first chapter is a joint work with Professor Morten Bennedsen and Dr. Markus Ampenberger. The version of in the dissertation will be published as Chapter 6 in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurial Finance by Oxford University Press. The second paper and third paper are single-authored papers. In the first chapter, we discuss the capital structure of family firms, with a focus on the debtequity mix. Two parts comprise the chapter. In the first part, we provide a literature review on existing theoretical and empirical research in the capital structure of family firms. The literature review shows that the most important theories to explain capital structure in family firms seem to be risk aversion, agency theory, and control considerations. We argue that risk aversion and control considerations have opposing impacts on the optimal choice of debt leverage of family firms. On one hand, controlling families of family firms are typically non-diversified investors with most of their wealth and human capital tied to the company and consequently family firms use less debt. On the other hand, controlling families want to maintain the control over their companies. This control consideration restricts the willingness to raise new equity outside the family and therefore often lead to a stronger dependence on banks and other debt instruments. The literature review also shows that evidence on capital structure choices of family firms is inconclusive. Large-scale evidence on private family firms is almost missing. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8607 Files in this item: 1
Haoyong_Zhou.pdf (2.035Mb) -
Forssbæck, Jens (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The thesis studies how financial markets discipline commercial and central banks’ behavior in various ways. In the first part, two papers test different aspects of market discipline of commercial banks’ risk taking, using a dataset of several hundred banks worldwide. In the first paper, it is shown that the risk-shifting opportunity of shareholders introduced by deposit insurance depends on ownership structure and the extent of market discipline by uninsured creditors. I find that the effect of shareholder control on risk is convex, and that creditor discipline tempers this effect but has little individual influence on risk. The second paper tests the monitoring dimension of market discipline and formulates a two-step procedure which makes it possible to sidestep the common methodological problem that banks’ ‘true’ risk is unobserved. Results suggest that if the quality of institutions is sufficiently high, some market-based indicators may be more accurate measures of banks’ true risk than a set of commonly used accounting-based benchmark indicators – a possibility effectively precluded by much of previous research. In the second part of the thesis, three papers study constraints on central bank behavior introduced by financial markets, using data from a set of small, open European economies during the 1980s and 1990s. The first of these papers tests how capital account liberalization and exchange-rate regime constrain monetary policy autonomy. Contrary to traditional theory, the paper finds no autonomy effect of exchange rate flexibility, whereas capital controls provided some (albeit limited) independence from innovations in foreign money market interest rates. The remaining two papers address how deregulation, innovation, and growth in domestic money markets interplay with central banks’ choices of monetary policy operating procedures. The analysis of the European countries suggests that while deregulation and the emergence of short-term financial markets constrained central bank discretion and compelled increased reliance on open market operations, the paths of money market development in different countries were also partially determined by the respective central banks’ decisions. In the final paper, the same framework of analysis is applied to China, which has announced its intention to rely increasingly on market operations in monetary policy. The results suggest that the disciplining effect of domestic financial markets on central bank behavior in China is so far very small, largely due to remaining de facto financial repression. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7785 Files in this item: 1
Jens_Forssbæck.pdf (3.819Mb) -
Vinten, Frederik Christian (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We study the impact of stock market valuations on delistings from European stock exchanges 1996-2004. Previous research has found that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) occur more often when market valuations are high. This is paradoxical since it implies that companies are more likely to engage in M&A when it is most expensive. In accordance with prior research we find that delistings by mergers and acquisitions are more likely when industry market-to-book values (q) are high. In contrast, we find no effect of industry q on going private transactions. The data also suggest that M&A are more likely to take place in bull years while going private transactions are relatively more likely in bear years. Our study is the first comprehensive study of delistings in Europe and the first study to demonstrate that going private transactions appear to be driven by different causal mechanisms than M&A. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7682 Files in this item: 1
frederik_vinten.pdf (1.449Mb) -
Fux, Sebastian (Frederiksberg, 2014)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis consists of three essays of which two are about return predictability while the last essay covers term structure models. Return predictability is still a heavily debated issue among nancial economists as well as practitioners in the nancial industry. The ability to predict stock returns out-of-sample, that is, by relying on information available at time t, is still controversial. In a recent paper, Goyal and Welch (2008) comprehensively reexamine the performance of 14 predictor variables that have been suggested by the academic literature to be powerful predictors of the U.S. equity premium, that is, the S&P 500 index return minus the short-term interest rate. The authors conclude that none of these predictor variables led to robust predictions across di erent forecast horizons and sample periods which consistently beat benchmark models such as the historical mean. In a response to Goyal and Welch (2008) Campbell and Thompson (2008) nd evidence of out-of-sample predictability by putting some economically meaningful restrictions on the coe cients of the predictive regressions. However, the out-of-sample explanatory power is nil, but nonetheless it is economically signi cant for investors with mean-variance preferences. The predictability literature argues that the out-of-sample predictability deteriorates due to structural breaks such as macroeconomic instability, changes in monetary policy, new regulations etc. Thus, not only the predictor model changes over time, but also its coef- cients. Goyal and Welch (2008) explain that more sophisticated models accounting for structural breaks might be able to consistently beat historical mean predictions. Additionally, predictability su ers from model uncertainty, meaning that there is only little consensus about the correct predictor variables and hence, the correct speci cation of the predictor model is unknown. The Bayesian framework accounts for model uncertainty by computing posterior model probabilities for all possible predictor models. Thus, Bayesian forecasts condition on the whole information set as opposed to conditioning on a single predictor variable and lead to more accurate forecasts. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8906 Files in this item: 1
Sebastian_Fux.pdf (1.090Mb) -
Tang Andersen, Allan Sall (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The topic of this thesis is the modeling of risks in interest-rate and inflation markets. Interest-rate risk is an important issue to investors. For instance, according to BIS (2010) the notional value of over-the-counter interest-rate derivatives markets is 465,260 billion US-dollar. This corresponds to 77 percent of the notional of the entire OTC derivatives market. Thus interest-rate derivatives is at the back-bone of the financial markets. According to ISDA (2009) 83 percent of Fortune 500 companies report using interest-rate derivatives in their risk management. Furthermore, many mortgage-based loans and pension contracts contain either explicit or implicit interest-rate options. Thus a better understanding of the interest-rate derivative markets, and the risk associated with the traded products is of great value, both to financial and non-financial companies as well as individuals.... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8339 Files in this item: 1
AllanSallTangAnderen_PhDThesis.pdf (2.088Mb) -
Henningsson, Stefan; Hanseth, Ole (, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper inquires into the complexities of contemporary IT solutions based on a case study of the EU’s eCustoms initiatives using Manuel DeLanda’s Assemblage Theory. Technological innovations have enabled information infrastructures with dramatically increased number and heterogeneity of included components, and their dynamic and unexpected interactions. Unfortunately, lack of understanding of how the increasing complexity influences development initiatives is hampering effective information infrastructure development. Assemblage Theory can be seen as holistic synthesis of previous research streams seeking to explain how information infrastructures evolve in social contexts. Accordingly, in this paper it helps us getting a holistic grasp of the complexity of contemporary IT solutions and the “essence” of their dynamics. Through Assemblage Theory we explain how the European eCustoms information infrastructure has through a dialectic between stabilizing and destabilizing processes assumed its current shape - a result of decisions taken decades ago, path dependency, complexity, and accumulated emergence. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8632 Files in this item: 1
Henningsson_Hanseth_2011.pdf (680.2Kb) -
between the "unification" and "fragmentation" trapKnudsen, Christian (København, 2002)[More information][Less information]
-
Jeppesen, Kim K. (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper examines recent attempts to professionalize Danish public sector auditing by the establishment of a certification of public sector auditors known in Danish as Certificeret Offentlig Revisor (COR). The establishment of the COR-certification has led to a dispute over the public sector auditing jurisdiction between a coalition of public sector auditors and the professional bodies of the private sector auditors. The paper outlines the process that led to the decision to create the COR-certification, analyse the COR coalition’s attempt to build a network of support for its jurisdictional claim of expertise, and discusses the general implications of the case for the ongoing attempt to create a European certification of public sector auditors. *) Paper presented at the 5th EIASM International Conference on Accounting, Auditing & Management in Public Sector Reforms, Amsterdam September 3-5, 2008 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6745 Files in this item: 1
wp_2008-01.pdf (105.0Kb) -
Henri Lefebvre’s ‘Work of Art’ and Scholarly Poli0cal EngagementBarinaga, Ester (Frederiksberg, 2014)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This article takes up Lefebvre’s challenge to apply the intellectual tools of the academy to the practical production of urban space, and discusses an effort to make use of our theories of signification in re-articulating stigmatized suburbs. Often referred to as ‘vulnerable’, ‘disenfranchised’ or ‘marginalized’, stigmatized suburbs and the people living in them are targeted by many social and economic initiatives simply because they are distinctly vulnerable, marginalized or disenfranchised. In so doing, initiatives interpellate and reproduce the geographical imaginary that is both the outcome and the source of their target groups’ political disadvantage. The article shows how a particular community initiative attempts to overcome the problem of interpellation. It uses Callon’s notion of ‘the qualification of products’ to understand the initiative’s efforts to transcend the objectification of the targeted groups as well as the symbolic limitation of agency. This allows us to follow the process by which the initiative attempts to re-symbolize the body and the neighborhood identified through the category of ‘the immigrant’. The article suggests that efforts to overcome the problem of interpellation must go beyond the realm of the symbolic to include, as well, social and material elements. The article ends with a reflexive note on the extent to which the engaged scholar is also caught within the interpellation paradox. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9020 Files in this item: 1
Barinaga - spatial resistance4.pdf (226.5Kb) -
Andersen, Steffen; Fountain, John; Harrison, Glenn W.; Rutström, E. Elisabet (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: It is intuitive that decision-makers might have attitudes towards uncertainty just as they might have attitudes towards risk. However, it is only recently that this intuitive notion has been formalized and axiomatically characterized. We estimate the extent of uncertainty aversion in a manner that is parsimonious and consistent with theory. We demonstrate that one can jointly estimate attitudes towards uncertainty, attitudes towards risk, and subjective probabilities in a rigorous manner. Our structural econometric model constructively demonstrates the theoretical claims that it is possible to define uncertainty aversion in an empirically tractable manner. Our results show that attitudes towards risk and uncertainty can be different, qualitatively and quantitatively, and that allowing for these differences can have significant effects on inferences about subjective probabilities. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7803 Files in this item: 1
wp2009-7.pdf (467.5Kb)