Browsing Ph.D. theses by Title
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Stern, Alexander Brian (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
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Fosse, Henrik Barslund (Copenhagen Business School, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The thesis consists of an introduction followed by three numbered chapters (independent papers). It covers topics in international trade, and in di¤erent ways the thesis investigates aspects of heterogeneity. The rst chapter is coauthored with Pascalis Raimondos-Møller. The version of this chapter is published in the CESifo Working Paper Series and serves as the nal background paper for the compressed journal article published in Review of Development Economics, May 2012. The second chapter is coauthored with Madhura Maitra, senior PhD student at Columbia University at the time. The third chapter is a solo paper. In the rst chapter we introduce a traditional macro model of trade and change the com- petitive environment by introducing state-owned enterprises. We also include heterogenous households to analyze e¤ects on the income distribution. The chapter focuses on Vietnam s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007. Upon entry, Vietnam was granted an accession period lasting till 2014. During this period tari¤s would have to fall according to the accession agreement. This rst chapter evaluates this 2007-2014 trade liberalization by building an applied general equilibrium model and calibrating it to the Vietnamese data. The model pays careful attention to the fact that Vietnam has many state-owned enterprises that do not behave in a pro t maximizing way. The model simulations show that the WTO imposed tari¤ reforms will reduce the overall welfare level of the Vietnamese households. Moreover, the biggest loss of income will take place among the poor rural households in Vietnam. We propose other tari¤ reforms that both raise overall welfare and reduce income inequality. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8541 Files in this item: 1
Henrik_Barslund_Fosse.pdf (1.149Mb) -
Overgaard Olesen, Jan (, 2001)[More information][Less information]
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Shi, Qingxin (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Usability evaluation methods are widely used to assess and improve the user interface design. This dissertation investigates the thinking aloud usability testing from a cultural perspective. In a test situation, representative users are required to verbalize their thoughts as they perform their tasks while using the system, and an evaluator observes the user’s task performance and comes up with usability problems. The primary goal of a usability test is to find a list of usability problems. In this research, the impacts of evaluators’ and users’ cultural backgrounds on both the result and the process of the thinking aloud usability testing were investigated. Regarding the results of the usability testing, the identified usability problem was the main focus, whereas for the process of testing, the communication between users and evaluators was the main focus. In this dissertation, culture was regarded as cognitive styles and communication orientations. For the theories of thinking aloud, both Ericsson and Simon’s classic model, and Boren and Ramey’s revised model for usability testing were taken into account. Based on the culture theories and thinking aloud models, hypotheses were developed to investigate the evaluators’ identified usability problems in different cultural settings, and themes were put forward to investigate the evaluators’ and users’ communications. In order to investigate the hypotheses and themes, an experimental study was conducted. The experimental design consisted of four independent groups with evaluators and users from similar or different cultures (Danish and Chinese). Empirical data were collected by using background questionnaires, usability problem forms, usability problem lists, video recordings of the testing and interviews. The usability testing software “Morae” was used to record the whole testing, including the faces of the evaluators and users, the screen and keyboard activities. Evaluators’ and users’ communications were analyzed by the behavioural coding and analysis software “Observer XT 8.0” with a well defined coding system. The results of the systematic study of the thinking aloud usability testing in the context of the intra- and inter-cultural usability engineering show that the evaluators’ cultural backgrounds do have some influences on the usability testing; however, the influences are different for the tests with Western and East Asian users. The main findings of this research have implications for both usability research and practice. The methodological approach also gives inspiration for usability evaluation studies URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8167 Files in this item: 2
Ny_version_Qingxin_Shi.pdf (4.021Mb)Qingxin_Shi.pdf (5.203Mb) -
Simon (, )[More information][Less information]
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Essays on sorting and globalizationScheuer, Christian (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: "Leaping into the future of labor economics: the research potential of linking employer and employee data" is the title of a paper by Daniel S Hammermesh published in Labour Economics in 1999. I quote it here, since it captures much of my motivation for the work included in this thesis. Considering applied micro econometrics and labor economics my main elds of interest, the development of linked employer-employee data that took place in Denmark around the time of the new millennium, marked new and exciting possibilities. For some years Danish researchers have had access to very detailed information on all people living in Denmark, but at the beginning of this century also data on all companies linked to these persons was being made available for research. Combined with modern computer technology this meant access to a linked database following all employers and all employees in Denmark over time. I had no doubt that this should be the centerpiece of my Ph.D. The result has been two lines of research, one studying the e¤ect of globalization on labor demand in Denmark, and one studying sorting, that is, how and why employers meet employees in the labor market. In the summary I treat each line of research independently although I would like to emphasize, that studying a labor market where fi rms and workers reacts to one another is the corner stone in both. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7928 Files in this item: 1
Christian_Scheuer.pdf (1.312Mb) -
An empirical investigation of business model innovation in supplier relation-ship managementNøkkentved, Chris (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In broad terms we want to identify the initiatives that drive business model transformation and study their effect on performance. We also presume that such initiatives are primarily influencing the context-specific skills and priorities of the organization. Transformation initiatives leading to organizational and technological change are presumably constrained by resident capabilities (Hartmann et al.,2002, Håkansson & Waluszewski, 2002), the focus and state of the current operations (Subramanian & Shaw, 2002), hence they indirectly influence performance26. There are potentially additional environmental contingencies affecting those same domain-specific factors, of which we will investigate industry membership, region, and company size (Ford et al. 1997). Finally, we will explore whether different actors or leaders incharge of such technology-oriented and organizational transformations have differences of opinion on the priorities of the firm (Håkansson & Waluszewski, 2002). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7767 Files in this item: 1
Chris_Nøkkentved.pdf (35.92Mb) -
Empirical Investigations into Entrepreneurial Activities of Hackers and MakersHalbinger, Maria (Frederiksberg, 2014)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: New ventures are central to an economy’s welfare and substantial promoters of technological change and innovation. Extant research has identified individuals and their role in entrepreneurial processes as the core pillars of entrepreneurship. This PhD dissertation aims to refine our understanding of the fundamental relationship between individuals and their entrepreneurial activities. In order to empirically test the hypotheses built, the analyses are based on a unique dataset on individuals in hacker- and makerspaces, i.e. open communities with physical workspaces where individuals with a common interest in technology, computing, science, art and hacking culture can meet, socialize and collaborate. Given that hackers and makers engage in various entrepreneurial activities, this empirical setting offers crucial benefits when analyzing entrepreneurial individuals. The thesis combines the literatures on psychology and entrepreneurship and consists of three essays. The first essay focuses on the early activities in the entrepreneurial process and depicts how the individual’s creativity as well as different forms of motivation influence different process activities including the discovery and exploitation of opportunities. The second essay consists of a longitudinal analysis and examines how the identity of the founder relates to firm exit. The third essay applies computational linguistic tools on haiku poems written by hackers to investigate how self-confidence, social awareness and social influence are related with entrepreneurial experience, defined by the number of times the individual has been involved in new firm establishments. Overall, the thesis aims to contribute to the field of entrepreneurship by providing empirical evidence on the individual-level factors that shape entrepreneurial activities. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8931 Files in this item: 1
Maria_Halbinger.pdf (2.807Mb) -
Olaison, Lena (Frederiksberg, 2014)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This PhD dissertation is based on four published articles. It operates within the processual view of entrepreneurship studies (Steyaert, 1997), which draws on process philosophy to develop research strategies (Sørensen, 2005). The research has been guided by two strategies for understanding entrepreneurship: ‘moving’ (e.g. Steyaert and Hjorth, 2003) and ‘unveiling’ (e.g. Jones and Spicer, 2009). These strategies have so far been pursued largely in the conceptual domain, and this doctoral dissertation is an effort to take them a step further by combining empirical investigation and philosophical reflection. The aim is to investigate how a processual study of entrepreneurship ‘should be worked out’ in practice (Kristensen, Lopdrup-Hjorth and Sørensen, 2014). The first two studies contribute an empirically informed conceptualisation of entrepreneurship, the first focused on how organisations are created, the second providing stories of emerging practices of female entrepreneurs. Though they aim to provide alternative conceptualisations, they remain firmly rooted in ‘traditional’ social science, offering alternative approaches to the dominant understandings of entrepreneurship, and utilizing accepted and traditional methodologies and theories. The last two papers are more experimental in their design. The aim is still to problematize discursive or practical aspects of entrepreneurship and processes around entrepreneurship, but also to investigate alternative methods for creating knowledge. The third study explores the somewhat paradoxical results of SME support schemes and develops a role-play-enhanced focus group technique. The fourth study is based on an organisational ethnography in antiquarian bookshops and experiments with fictional accounts and literary techniques as methods to generate knowledge. The contribution of this dissertation to processual studies in entrepreneurship research is twofold. The first two papers are illustrations of an application of process concepts, while the last two papers illustrate the attempt to create process concepts. Taken together, the studies demonstrate how a processual study of entrepreneurship might be worked out in practice. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8917 Files in this item: 1
Lena_Olaison.pdf (1.130Mb) -
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) -
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) -
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)