The purpose of this work is to empirically assess the validity of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) in terms of how can it model an equity’s return. The goal of this work is not to challenge the theory behind CAPM, nor compare it to alternatives, but simply to test whether or not it is...

This thesis explores the role of emerging markets in investment portfolios. Could an investment portfolio consisting of emerging market securities have outperformed similar portfolios that did not contain emerging markets over recent years? Gathering data from January 1, 2009 to December 31,...

Any major research institution has a substantial number of computer systems on its campus, often in the scale of tens of thousands. Given that a large amount of scientific computing is appropriate for execution in an opportunistic environment, a campus grid is an inexpensive way to build a...

ABSTRACTESSAYS ON REVERSE LEVERAGED BUYOUTSbyMARK GRUSKINAugust 2011Advisor: Dr. Sudip DattaMajor: Business Administration (Finance)Degree: Doctor of PhilosophyThis dissertation is the first study to investigate public-to-private reverse leveraged buyouts (RLBOs). The first essay measures...

This dissertation is composed of two distinct chapters. The first chapter is concerned with the secular trends in corporate cash holdings and the determinants of the changing cash policies for seven industrialized countries--Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the US, and UK. In the first...

The refinancing of PFI (Private Finance Initiative) projects represents one of the most contentious aspects of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the UK. The negative publicity associated with UK PFI refinancing deals is associated with several factors, including, evidence of massive private...

I show that relative levels of aggregate consumption and personal oil consumption provide anexcellent proxy for oil prices, and that high oil prices predict low future aggregate consumptiongrowth. Motivated by these facts, I add an oil consumption good to the long-run risk model of Bansal and...

This dissertation documents the positive relationship between financial distress and equity issuance and shows that dilution explains the low stock returns of distressed firms. When the cross-section of firms is sorted by degree of distress, the value-weighted mean of the monthly net issuance...

The first chapter “Investment Patterns in Singapore’s Central Provident Fund System” investigates how plan participants in a national defined contribution system invest their pension accumulations. I find that only a small fraction of participants elects to invest in outside investment...

Alternate Models for Forecasting Hedge Fund ReturnsMichael HoldenFaculty Sponsor: Gordon Dash, Finance and Decision SciencesInvestors have always wanted to improve the efficiency of modeling realized volatility to maximize directional trading returns and substantially improve profitability. As...