A primary focus of empirical earnings research is whether accounting earnings contain meaningful and timely information that can be used by market participants to value securities. Empirically, accounting earnings numbers are considered to be reliable representations of economic performance if...

The emergence of the international debt crisis in the 1980s is typically explained through exogenous shocks to the global economic system, first generating excess liquidity and then creating conditions which render previously attractive lending operations unprofitable. Thus, the international...

With recent trends toward globalization and capital market integration, emerging markets have increasingly become the target of many investors in search for higher returns. Before placing their money abroad, however, investors need to bear considerable challenges in mind. While investments in...

This dissertation (consisting of two essays) analyzes the impact of policy measures used to control the risk-taking behavior of banks. Specifically, the first essay explores the impact of increasing the required minimum capital to asset ratios on the riskiness of banks' assets. The second essay...

This dissertation develops a supply and demand based theory of equity price determination to investigate the unprecedented run-up in U.S. equity values during 1982-1999. The model draws insight from both fundamental valuation analysis, and various speculative market theories. It also...

The credit default swap (CDS) market has blossomed to become a major asset class in the capital markets. Once largely confined to banks, the market participants have expanded to include insurance companies, hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds, and other investors looking for yield...

This dissertation investigates different but related aspects of the impact of global financial liberalization on macroeconomic changes and policy formation in a developing country. By using recent time-series econometric techniques for the Turkish case, three essays in this dissertation test the...

This study tests the assertion that membership growth in credit unions is constrained by their unique structural features, such as their non-profit mission and member-based ownership. Although these features enhance inclusiveness, existing theory suggest that they work against efficiency when...

In Part I we develop a model of entry in which an entrant with private information about its production cost and cost of entry has an opportunity to trade in the stock of a single incumbent before entry. We assume an efficient stock market populated by risk-neutral liquidity sellers who randomly...

This thesis develops a model of black market for foreign currency that focuses on the interaction of portfolio decisions and the determinants of the net flows of black foreign currency. The model explicitly incorporates foreign exchange restrictions as well as the demands arising from smuggling....