http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/5665 2013-06-17T19:31:42Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6920 Title: Impacts on stock price volatility of the banks in Hong Kong : changes in availability and understandability of information after implementation of the disclosure requirements of IFRS and Basel II Authors: Tam, Yat Kung (譚日恭) Abstract: As one of the leading financial centres in the world, Hong Kong implemented a new financial and regulatory disclosure framework including the fair-value-based International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the Basel II disclosure requirements during 2005 to 2007 for the banking industry to follow the same pace of the developed economies. The new framework requires disclosure of more economic and risk information which changes availability of information to the banks' stakeholders and should reduce information asymmetry between the stakeholders and the banks' management. Nevertheless, it is a question of fact if more information received" would necessarily mean more information is "perceived" and whether more complex and complicated information provided to the stakeholders would improve their understandability and relief the problem of heterogeneous beliefs. Since both information asymmetry and heterogeneous beliefs are issues that would affect price volatility of a business, the study uses stock price volatility, increase or decrease, as the proxy to measure the overall net impact of the two problems, which may deteriorate or improve simultaneously or offsetting to each other particularly when one problem improves or deteriorates more than the opposing change of the other under the conflict between information availability and information understandability. Five measures of volatility based on three approaches, namely realized volatility approach, conditional volatility approach and idiosyncratic volatility approach, are defined for performing cross market analysis of seven markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and India over a period of six years from 2004 to 2009 to assess the changes in volatility of the banking industry from before to after the implementation of IFRS and Basel II disclosure requirements in different markets. Moreover, cross industry analysis using two measures to compare the banking and finance industry with other three major industries of Hong Kong over the same six-year period is performed. The statistical results of the cross market analysis and cross industry analysis are robust which indicate that the implementation of IFRS and Basel II disclosure requirements are significantly associated with higher volatility. Notes: CityU Call Number: HG1723 .T35 2012; viii, 274 leaves : ill. (some col.) 30 cm.; Thesis (DBA)--City University of Hong Kong, 2012.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 261-274) 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6919 Title: Board independence and company financial performance : evidence from Hong Kong Authors: Ng, Chung Wai David (吳頌煒) Abstract: The global economic crisis that began in 2008 has cast the spotlight on the board of directors as a critical element of corporate governance. This focus on company boards is the continuation of a long tradition of corporate governance discussion, both in academic and regulatory circles. Much of the discussion to date has been dominated by the agency theory, which postulates that greater independence in board and leadership structures will reduce agency costs and enable companies to achieve better financial performance. However, the universal adoption of regulatory standards in this direction has failed to avoid the collapse of major companies. In addition, extensive empirical research, which has followed a quantitative and deductive tradition, has not been able to confirm the conventional wisdom about board or leadership independence. This research study has therefore sought to re-examine the problem from a new perspective. Departing from established tradition, the study has applied a qualitative and inductive approach by drawing on a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews of independent non-executive directors (INEDs) from listed companies in Hong Kong. The results have identified serious conceptual flaws in the belief that greater independence in board or leadership structures would necessarily improve a company's financial performance. The findings suggest that the relationships between structural independence and company performance are indirect, circuitous, and fraught with different levels of uncertainties. In addition, the results of this study include observations about the roles of INEDs, the factors which influence the nature and effectiveness of such roles, as well as common processes and dynamics which are found to operate on company boards. These findings have filled a void in prior research and indicate that a power-based framework with behavioral and relational dimensions may offer a more holistic perspective. The use of such a framework suggests opportunities for future research and improvement efforts, with academic and practical implications. These opportunities would require stronger academic collaboration with the business and professional communities in the spirit of engaged scholarship. Notes: CityU Call Number: HD2745 .N45 2012; v, 149 leaves : ill. 30 cm.; Thesis (DBA)--City University of Hong Kong, 2012.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-139) 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6918 Title: The sage of an Asian tiger : Taiwan's foreign reserves, exchange rates, capital control and the hot money in the 1980s Authors: Huang, Lih-Yueh Lydiya (黃皪月) Abstract: Undesired balance of payments' shocks, domestic currency turbulences and inconsistent exchange rate system to fundamentals seemed eternal perplexities in international finance and economics. They are remote from settlement evidenced by the reoccurrences of financial and economic crises in the front. For developing and emerging economies where exchange rates usually serve as crucial manipulated parameters in the pricing structure of global trade during economic transition era, the disturbances from exchange rate chaos might reshuffle the states of trade competitiveness at macro level. Capital control is often another key regulator in the mechanism to complement and escort government's policy frameworks in exchange rate system, but there exist implications. In making optimal policy selections to square multiple disequilibria derived from 2the incompatibilities from Mundell-Fleming's "Impossible Trinity" in exchange rate system, capital mobility and monetary autonomy in the ever-changing economic environments, governments often have to cope with speculative disruptions by irregular hot money flows. Rigid capital control and undervalued currency seemed to serve as good resorts of defending an invariable policy in stockpiling international reserves which are deemed vital for external liabilities repayment and internal monetary base. Nonetheless, the incompatibilities and disequilibria accelerated must be paid by relative financial and economic consequences once the time is ripe. In the late eighties - the heyday of deregulations, as a transition economy and a transforming political entity, Taiwan had gone through a streak of inevitable adjustments in exchange rate and capital control regimes propelled by spillovers of Plaza Accord, rapid export boom and speedy foreign reserves accumulation. Unfortunately, financial turmoil and negative economic shocks reversed rosy economic episode with hot money turbulences within a short time horizon. We demonstrate the dynamic systems of hot money and its co-factors that functioned during the disturbances in financial and real sectors on the road to democratization, liberalization and globalization. This research faithfully presents the structural roadmaps and rationales of the episode tracked from Taiwan's five-decade evolution in economic and financial contexts using an analytical and a narrative approach. We present evidence that the effect of excess hot money frenzy speculating on drastic currency appreciation inflated financial bubbles and slashed trade competitiveness. Its inevitable retroactions of capital flight kindled a spiral financial crisis with self-fulfilled feedback busts. We advocate the rethinking on the fallacy of foreign reserves and the implications it plays and threats it poses. Finally, we conclude that the reforms to financial and economic liberalization promote the sustainability of stable economic growth and financial system in a long run. We believe that our work adds to what is known and will stimulate additional perspectives and theories on relevant areas to yield better insights to policy makers especially in the Greater China region. The progression and labor pains experienced by Taiwan in the implementation of twin reforms of capital control and exchange regimes surely provides important lessons to China and other protective, trade-reliance economies to draw to withstand the test of times on the road to global integration. Notes: CityU Call Number: HG187.T28 H83 2012; xvi, 232 leaves : ill. (some col.) 30 cm.; Thesis (DBA)--City University of Hong Kong, 2012.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 175-191) 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6917 Title: Modeling the investment strategy of commercial real estate in China Authors: Huang, Kuntai (黃坤泰) Abstract: Lack of reliable valuation data, risk of making a poor investment, macroeconomic uncertainty, and difficulty determining the best opportunities are the common conditions and problems for all investors in commercial real estate (CRE) in the current Chinese real estate industry. The current investment decision-making process for commercial real estate in China is usually based on predictions which are evaluated according to a variety of financial criteria. Investment results sometimes fall short of expectations even when the operating process and capital requirements of the financial prediction are satisfied. The main reason for the uncontrollable results is the lack of consideration given the external and internal influences on commercial real estate in China. At present, there is no systematic method of analysis for predicting investment results on commercial real estate in China that accounts for and includes these influences. A systematic analysis of the external and internal influence factors and modeling a method for predicting the investment result is the main subject of this thesis. In this research, I develop a systematic analytical model which is a kind of decision making model and includes the internal and external influences on the Chinese commercial real estate market for predicting future investment results. This model uses the "Weighted Sum Model" (WSM) and Strategic Assessment Model (SAM) methods, which are "Multi-Criteria Decision Making" (MCDM) methods, and 10 case studies to identify and validate the prediction model. In this research, cross comparison and analysis of each evaluation method as applied to these 10 cases is adopted to verify the consistency of the predictive model. Based on the predictive results available from this model, investors can make decisions to invest the CRE in China or not. Furthermore, investors can understand the weaknesses and strengths of internal and external factors through use of the model. This research will help investors understand these various influence factors and how they affect investment results when making CRE investment decisions. Application of the decision making model will increase the success probability for investment in the CRE in China. The primary purpose of this research is to develop a model which can help the investor to predict investment results and navigate the currently chaotic commercial real estate market in China. The model predicts the success rate by comparing different criteria comparison among the major and subordinate external and internal factors. Based on the final conclusion of this research, integrating subordinate external and subordinate internal factors together as decision making factors will be most reliable accuracy of predictive success rate for investment in Chinese CRE. The dissertation and its forecasting model will be useful for government agencies, commercial property developers, and both institutional and individual investors in this huge and growing market. Notes: CityU Call Number: HD1393.58.C6 H83 2012; xv, 238 leaves : ill. 30 cm.; Thesis (DBA)--City University of Hong Kong, 2012.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-189) 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z