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- All Subjects: Finance
- Genre: Academic theses
- Creators: Mehra, Rajnish
- Creators: Yan, Hong
Description
Merton (1987) predicts that idiosyncratic risk can be priced. I develop a simple equilibrium model of capital markets with information costs in which the idiosyncratic risk premium depends on the average level of idiosyncratic volatility. This dependence suggests that the idiosyncratic risk premium varies over time. I find that in U.S. markets, the covariance between stock-level idiosyncratic volatility and the idiosyncratic risk premium explains future stock returns. Stocks in the highest quintile of the covariance between the volatility and risk premium earn an average 3-factor alpha of 70 bps per month higher than those in the lowest quintile.
ContributorsXie, Daruo (Author) / Wahal, Sunil (Thesis advisor) / Mehra, Rajnish (Thesis advisor) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This paper examines dealers' inventory holding periods and the associated price markups on corporate bonds from 2003 to 2010. Changes in these measures explain a large part of the time series variation in aggregate corporate bond prices. In the cross-section, holding periods and markups overshadow extant liquidity measures and have significant explanatory power for individual bond prices. Both measures shed light on the credit spread puzzle: changes in credit spread are positively correlated with changes in holding periods and markups, and a large portion of credit spread changes is explained by them. The economic effects of holding periods and markups are particularly sharp during crisis periods.
ContributorsQian, Zhiyi (Author) / Wahal, Sunil (Thesis advisor) / Bharath, Sreedhar (Committee member) / Coles, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Mehra, Rajnish (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This dissertation focuses on risk prevention and regulatory issues of financial asset trading platforms, exploring the composition of a financial asset trading platform and its risks, formulating the general framework of platform risk prevention and regulation, and discussing the methodologies for monitoring and managing the risk of financial assets trading platform. The dissertation is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter is the introduction, which discusses the current status in this research field, the motivation and significance of the research topic. The second chapter discusses the transaction cost theory, information asymmetry theory, financial risk management theory, financial supervision theory and other related basic theories related to financial asset trading platform risk prevention and supervision. The third chapter presents the definition, the main types, the generating mechanism and the transmission mechanism of the financial asset trading platform. The fourth chapter elaborates theoretically on the general framework of financial asset trading platform risk prevention and supervision based on the aspects of basic principles, key tasks, applicable methods and constituent elements. The fifth chapter discusses the performance of financial asset trading business, asset return trading business, financing business and information coupling business on financial asset trading platforms, and analyzes the risk prevention of financial asset trading platforms from a business perspective. The sixth chapter discusses the development of financial asset trading platforms in developed countries, and summarizes the experience and practice of their risk prevention and supervision based on four categories of business lines. On this basis, the dissertation draws the inspiration and implications for the future development of the trading platforms in our country. The seventh chapter puts forward policy recommendations regarding risk prevention and supervision of financial asset trading platforms in five aspects: legal positioning, credit information system, protection of consumer rights, self-discipline management and business supervision.
ContributorsXu, Chaojun (Author) / Hwang, Yuhchang (Thesis advisor) / Yan, Hong (Thesis advisor) / Chang, Chun (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
By matching a CEO's place of residence in his or her formative years with U.S. Census survey data, I obtain an estimate of the CEO's family wealth and study the link between the CEO's endowed social status and firm performance. I find that, on average, CEOs born into poor families outperform those born into wealthy families, as measured by a variety of proxies for firm performance. There is no evidence of higher risk-taking by the CEOs from low social status backgrounds. Further, CEOs from less privileged families perform better in firms with high R&D spending but they underperform CEOs from wealthy families when firms operate in a more uncertain environment. Taken together, my results show that endowed family wealth of a CEO is useful in identifying his or her managerial ability.
ContributorsDu, Fangfang (Author) / Babenko, Ilona (Thesis advisor) / Bates, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Tserlukevich, Yuri (Committee member) / Wang, Jessie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This dissertation consists of two essays on corporate policy. The first chapter analyzes whether being labeled a “growth” firm or a “value” firm affects the firm’s dividend policy. I focus on the dividend policy because of its discretionary nature and the link to investor demand. To address endogeneity concerns, I use regression discontinuity design around the threshold to assign firms to each category. The results show that “value” firms have a significantly higher dividend payout - about four percentage points - than growth firms. This approach establishes a causal link between firm “growth/value” labels and dividend policy.
The second chapter develops investment policy model which associated with du- ration of cash flow. Firms are doing their business by operating a portfolio of projects that have various duration, and the duration of the project portfolio generates dif- ferent duration of cash flow stream. By assuming the duration of cash flow as a firm specific characteristic, this paper analyzes how the duration of cash flow affects firms’ investment decision. I develop a model of investment, external finance, and savings to characterize how firms’ decision is affected by the duration of cash flow. Firms maximize total value of cash flow, while they have to maintain their solvency by paying a fixed cost for the operation. I empirically confirm the positive correlation between duration of cash flow and investment with theoretical support. Financial constraint suffocates the firm when they face solvency issue, so that model with financial constraint shows that the correlation between duration of cash flow and investment is stronger than low financial constraint case.
The second chapter develops investment policy model which associated with du- ration of cash flow. Firms are doing their business by operating a portfolio of projects that have various duration, and the duration of the project portfolio generates dif- ferent duration of cash flow stream. By assuming the duration of cash flow as a firm specific characteristic, this paper analyzes how the duration of cash flow affects firms’ investment decision. I develop a model of investment, external finance, and savings to characterize how firms’ decision is affected by the duration of cash flow. Firms maximize total value of cash flow, while they have to maintain their solvency by paying a fixed cost for the operation. I empirically confirm the positive correlation between duration of cash flow and investment with theoretical support. Financial constraint suffocates the firm when they face solvency issue, so that model with financial constraint shows that the correlation between duration of cash flow and investment is stronger than low financial constraint case.
ContributorsLee, Tae Eui (Author) / Mehra, Rajnish (Thesis advisor) / Tserlukevich, Yuri (Thesis advisor) / Custodio, Claudia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This dissertation is a collection of three essays relating household financial obligations to asset prices. Financial obligations include both debt payments and other financial commitments.
In the first essay, I investigate how household financial obligations affect the equity premium. I modify the standard Mehra-Prescott (1985) consumption-based asset pricing model to resolve the equity risk premium puzzle. I focus on two channels: the preference channel and the borrowing constraints channel. Under reasonable parameterizations, my model generates equity risk premiums similar in magnitudes to those observed in U.S. data. Furthermore, I show that relaxing the borrowing constraint shrinks the equity risk premium.
In the Second essay, I test the predictability of excess market returns using the household financial obligations ratio. I show that deviations in the household financial obligations ratio from its long-run mean is a better forecaster of future market returns than alternative prediction variables. The results remain significant using either quarterly or annual data and are robust to out-of-sample tests.
In the third essay, I investigate whether the risk associated with household financial obligations is an economy-wide risk with the potential to explain fluctuations in the cross-section of stock returns. The multifactor model I propose, is a modification of the capital asset pricing model that includes the financial obligations ratio as a ``conditioning down" variable. The key finding is that there is an aggregate hedging demand for securities that pay off in periods characterized by higher levels of financial obligations ratios. The consistent pricing of financial obligations risk with a negative risk premium suggests that the financial obligations ratio acts as a state variable.
In the first essay, I investigate how household financial obligations affect the equity premium. I modify the standard Mehra-Prescott (1985) consumption-based asset pricing model to resolve the equity risk premium puzzle. I focus on two channels: the preference channel and the borrowing constraints channel. Under reasonable parameterizations, my model generates equity risk premiums similar in magnitudes to those observed in U.S. data. Furthermore, I show that relaxing the borrowing constraint shrinks the equity risk premium.
In the Second essay, I test the predictability of excess market returns using the household financial obligations ratio. I show that deviations in the household financial obligations ratio from its long-run mean is a better forecaster of future market returns than alternative prediction variables. The results remain significant using either quarterly or annual data and are robust to out-of-sample tests.
In the third essay, I investigate whether the risk associated with household financial obligations is an economy-wide risk with the potential to explain fluctuations in the cross-section of stock returns. The multifactor model I propose, is a modification of the capital asset pricing model that includes the financial obligations ratio as a ``conditioning down" variable. The key finding is that there is an aggregate hedging demand for securities that pay off in periods characterized by higher levels of financial obligations ratios. The consistent pricing of financial obligations risk with a negative risk premium suggests that the financial obligations ratio acts as a state variable.
ContributorsJahangiry, Pedram (Author) / Mehra, Rajnish (Thesis advisor) / Wahal, Sunil (Committee member) / Reffett, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the total assets managed by U.S. mutual funds have frequently hit new highs and the industry has become increasingly concentrated. In the meantime, two strategies have emerged in the American mutual fund industry: active and passive management. What factors affect the market shares of firms that adopted these two different strategies?
Building on strategic management theories, I suggest that mutual fund families that adopted active and passive management strategies tend to compete in different dimensions. Active management fund families tend to implement the product differentiation strategy, competing on “product quality” through excess-returns, innovative and differentiated fund products; passively managed fund families focus more on "price competition" by conducting an overall cost leadership strategy.
This research examines the driven factors of fund families’ market share. The results show that: the market share of actively managed fund families is more sensitive to positive impact of fund performance, while passive management firms are more sensitive to negative effect of management fees and total loads; 12b-1 expense improves the competitiveness of active fund families and thus enhance their market shares but it has negative impact on passive fund families. In addition, high turnover decreases the market share of all fund families, especially for passively managed families. The outcome reveals the latest US mutual industry orientation: products differentiation, turnover, management fee have greater impact on market share while the competition of fund performance is diminishing. The Matthew effect in US mutual fund industry is outstanding. Industrial competition dimension expands from performance and products to cost cutting.
Empirical analysis on Chinese mutual fund families is also conducted. Different from the US, there is only small number of mutual fund families targeting passive management products. The results show that the distribution channel has the largest impact on Chinese mutual fund family market share and investors are more willing to chase performance than to consider cost-efficient fund families. This study then analyses reasons behind the difference of Chinese and American mutual fund industries.
Building on strategic management theories, I suggest that mutual fund families that adopted active and passive management strategies tend to compete in different dimensions. Active management fund families tend to implement the product differentiation strategy, competing on “product quality” through excess-returns, innovative and differentiated fund products; passively managed fund families focus more on "price competition" by conducting an overall cost leadership strategy.
This research examines the driven factors of fund families’ market share. The results show that: the market share of actively managed fund families is more sensitive to positive impact of fund performance, while passive management firms are more sensitive to negative effect of management fees and total loads; 12b-1 expense improves the competitiveness of active fund families and thus enhance their market shares but it has negative impact on passive fund families. In addition, high turnover decreases the market share of all fund families, especially for passively managed families. The outcome reveals the latest US mutual industry orientation: products differentiation, turnover, management fee have greater impact on market share while the competition of fund performance is diminishing. The Matthew effect in US mutual fund industry is outstanding. Industrial competition dimension expands from performance and products to cost cutting.
Empirical analysis on Chinese mutual fund families is also conducted. Different from the US, there is only small number of mutual fund families targeting passive management products. The results show that the distribution channel has the largest impact on Chinese mutual fund family market share and investors are more willing to chase performance than to consider cost-efficient fund families. This study then analyses reasons behind the difference of Chinese and American mutual fund industries.
ContributorsLiu, Jianping (Author) / Zhu, Hongquan (Thesis advisor) / Chang, Chun (Thesis advisor) / Yan, Hong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This dissertation consists of two essays related to dynamic debt contracting and financial economics. The first chapter studies key determinants of inclusion of a financial covenant in corporate loans from theoretical and empirical angles. Using a novel manually collected loan dataset of small to medium-sized publicly-listed U.S. firms, I find that firms that issue loans without financial covenants tend to have (i) lower accounting quality, (ii) lower assets, and (iii) are experiencing faster growth in profitability relative to firms that issue loans with financial covenants. I build a theoretical model of project financing in which there is noisy public information about the project’s profitability, and the lender can privately monitor to improve the information quality. I show that if the signal precision without monitoring is sufficiently low (high), the equilibrium contract does not include (includes) a covenant. Covenant inclusion plays a key role in providing incentives to the lender to monitor. I show that the lender monitors less often relative to the first best. Insufficient monitoring leads to “excessive risk-taking,” namely, bad quality firms continuing with the project too often. Relatedly, I also show that covenants are used less often in equilibrium relative to the first best. The second chapter examines equilibrium consequences of litigation by holdout creditors in sovereign debt renegotiation. I show that given a sufficiently high probability of winning the litigation case against the borrowing country and/or a high enough defaulted sovereign debt, the presence of the holdout creditors increases the expected debt recovery rate, which makes the default option less attractive, and decreases the country’s default probability and the interest rate on the country’s debt. The country responds by borrowing more but defaults less often along the equilibrium path as it wants to avoid default and facing holdout creditors. Having a non-zero probability of successful litigation is welfare improving for the country as it sustains higher debt and defaults less frequently.
ContributorsKim, Yong (Author) / Kovrijnykh, Natalia (Thesis advisor) / Mehra, Rajnish (Committee member) / Tserlukevich, Yuri (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This dissertation consists of three essays studying topics in financial economicsthrough the lens of quantitative models. In particular, I provide three examples of the
effective use of data in the disciplining of financial economics models. In the first essay,
I provide evidence of a significant transitory component of aggregate equity payout.
Leading asset pricing models assume exogenous dividend growth processes which are
inconsistent with this fact. I find that imposing market clearing for consumption
and income in these models induces the relevant behaviors in dividend growth, even
when dividend growth is obtained indirectly. In the second essay, I provide a novel
decomposition of the unconditional equity risk premium. In the data, the majority of
the equity premium is attributable to moderate left tail risks, not those associated
with disaster states. In stark contrast to the data, leading asset pricing models do
not predict that this intermediate left tail region meaningfully contributes to the
equity premium. The shortcomings of the models can be pinned on unreasonably low
prices of risk for tail events relative to the data. In the third essay, I document a
large dispersion in household allocations to risky assets conditional on age. I show
that while standard household portfolio choice models can be made to match the
average risky share over the lifecycle, the models fall short of generating sufficient
heterogeneity in the cross-section of household portfolios.
ContributorsBeason, Tyler (Author) / Mehra, Rajnish (Thesis advisor) / Wahal, Sunil (Thesis advisor) / Pruitt, Seth (Committee member) / Schreindorfer, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description期限错配策略利用滚动短期融资支持长期投资，滚动短期融资本身极易导致资金链紧张，产生流动性风险。利用手工收集的2006-2018年A股上市公司独特数据，本文系统考察了企业投融资期限错配对发行信用债信用利差的影响。本文发现，期限错配越严重的企业，越有可能在发行信用债时被要求更高的信用利差，对于民营上市公司发行信用债尤其如此；利用再融资环境和“钱荒”事件进行的作用机制检验表明，企业投融资期限错配对发行信用债利差的影响主要是因为期限错配蕴含着较高的流动性风险； 利用工具变量、双重差分法和替代性度量等一系列稳健性检验仍能得出一致结论。再者，利用2006-2018 年我国开放式基金年度持股数据，从基金投资组合与持仓调整两个角度，实证检验了期限错配行为对于基金投资行为的影响。研究发现，期限错配产生的财务风险会降低基金对期限错配上市公司发行信用债的投资规模；且在实施期限错配当年，基金对持有的该上市公司的信用债更可能进行减持，由此表明期限错配会影响基金投资策略的形成。进一步的分析显示，基金所在基金管理公司为中外合资时，上述基金投资行为更加明显；同时，当基金持有民营上市公司以及处于紧缩性货币政策环境时，期限错配对于基金投资行为的影响更大。
最后，本文考察了期限错配下基金投资信用债的经济后果，分别从基金业绩、基金收益波动率和基金流量这三个维度进行了检验。实证结果显示，在控制其他可能影响基金收益及收益波动率的因素后，对期限错配上市公司信用债持有比重越小及减持比例越大的基金，当年业绩越好，且收益的波动率越低。再次，对于基金投资者，本文利用净申购率作为基金流量的代理变量，检验发现，基金投资者更热忠于追逐采取减少持有期限错配上市公司信用债这一投资策略的基金，表现为这类基金有更多的资金净流入，而且，相对于个人投资者，上述基金投资者的投资偏好在我国的机构投资者中表现得更加明显。
ContributorsXu, Liqun (Author) / Pei, Ker-Wei (Thesis advisor) / Yan, Hong (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Huibing (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021