Economic Theory Commons^™

Essay 1: How We Feel: The Role Of Macro-Economic Sentiment In Advertising Spending-Sales Relationship; Essay 2: It Was The Best Of Times; It Was The Worst Of Times: The Effect Of Emotional Uncertainty And Arousal On Healthy Food Choices, Leila Khoshghadam

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Essay 1: Controversies regarding the advertising spending-sales relationship have spawned many studies in marketing. Previous research on macroeconomic influencers of this relationship has focused mostly on objective macroeconomic indicators such as cyclical contraction and expansion. Extending these previous studies, the current research argues that sales response to advertising is also contingent upon the pervasive feelings present in the macroeconomic environment, above and beyond the influence from objective macroeconomic factors. Specifically, it argues that future outlook negativity and uncertainty in macroeconomic sentiment can affect the ad spending-sales relationship. Analyzing sales and advertising spending data for salty snacks in conjunction with macroeconomic …

Dwelling In Time, Dwelling In Structures: Disintegration In World Politics, Jan Adam Nalaskowski

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation aims to propose a general theory of disintegration. This subject is not treated directly by some theoretical accounts and mistreated by others. European integration theories are fashioned to explain the greater integration process while game-theoretic approaches to withdrawals and secessions, even if treating disintegration directly, fail to include critically responsible factors. This dissertation offers a constructive criticism of both accounts. Since neither turning integration theories symmetrically around nor direct, game-theoretic assessment of disintegration help to provide sufficient explanation, it is suggested that the problem of symmetrical reversal and rational conduct must be revised.

Disintegration fails to follow the …

Two Essays On Ipo Earnings Management, Yong Sun

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This dissertation includes two essays that study initial public offerings (IPO) earnings management. The first essay examines the underwriter's certification and monitoring roles in IPO earnings management; the second essay explores the relation between IPO earnings management and post-IPO institutional ownership.

In the first essay, we investigate the certification role played by underwriters. We hypothesize that there is a negative relation between IPO earnings management and underwriter reputation and that there is a positive relation between underwriter reputation and firm operating performance. In addition, underwriters continue providing monitoring to the firms they take public. Using a sample of IPOs, we …

Two Essays On Lead-Lag Patterns Between Trading Volume And Stock Return In China Stock Markets, Xiaotian Zhu

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This dissertation systematically investigate the lead-lag relations between the trading volume and stock return patterns in China A share and B share markets through two streams of behavioral postulations. In the first part, we summarize all the potential lead-lag patterns between trading volume and stock returns and link them to the corresponding behavioral explanations. In particular, Lee and Swaminathan's (2000) Momentum Life Cycle theory best explains the strong negative relations between lagged trading volume and subsequent return in China A share market. The strong positive relations between lagged market return and subsequent trading volume found in both China's B share …

Three Essays On Real Estate Investment Trusts, Yan Lin

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This dissertation includes three essays that study on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). The first essay examines the shape of market demand curve by employing REIT equity fund flows as a proxy for REIT aggregate demand. An empirical framework is introduced to disentangle the price-pressure effect and the information effect. We do not find evidence for the price-pressure effect, which states that REIT equity fund flows directly affect REIT market prices. Instead, we find that the performance of REIT market prices does influence REIT equity fund flows. The results indicate that investors adjust their demand for REITs by investigating and …

Relative Gains Problem And Case Studies Of Economic Cooperation In East Asia, Ping Deng

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Relative gains problem basically means unequal cooperative payoffs disproportionately favoring partners. With the relative gains problem widely accepted as a serious impediment to international cooperation, some scholars have theoretically argued or modeled several conditions that are most likely to foster a state's sensitivity to relative gains and thus substantially affect the prospects for cooperation. But little empirical work has been done to date. The central objective of this dissertation is to test whether those theoretical propositions can be supported by empirical evidence. For this purpose, we have deducted three hypotheses: (1) If a state faces military threat and zero-sum political …