Research in this thesis deals with some unexplored, or only partially explored, issues relating to the information content of volatility of the idiosyncratic component of asset returns at the firm and industry-level, both in the context of developed and emerging stock markets. Specific issues we...

We begin with the outlining the motivation of this research as there are still so many unanswered research questions on our complex financial and economic systems. The philosophical background and the advances of econometrics and econophysics are discussed to provide an overview of the...

A large body of the literature argues that the soundness of financial system is largely determined by the economic and institutional environment in which the financial system works. Drawing on this theoretical underpinning, research in this thesis models financial soundness indicators (FSIs)...

After examining both the interday and intraday return volatility of the Shanghai Composite Stock Index, it was found that the open-to-open return variance is consistently greater than the close-to-close variance. The volatility of interday returns and variance ratio tests with five-minute...

This paper examines whether the firm-level and the industry-level cross-sectional volatility (CSV) contains any incremental information about the future market-level volatility in Australia. We analyze daily equity returns data from 2 January 1992 to 31 May 2004. Using a conditional volatility...

The relationship between stock market development and economic growth has been an important issue of debate. A well functioning stock market can affect economic growth through the channelling of more saving to investment and the improvement of capital productivity with efficient allocation of...

This thesis examines the determinants of corporate performance and likelihood of default of Jordanian publicly listed companies. Despite the large body of work that has investigated the determinants of corporate performance and default, no comprehensive study has emerged in an emerging market....

This paper investigates the empirical relationship between intraday volatility and trading volume. Our primary data set consists of 5-minute returns and trading volumes for the period between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2002, for a subset of thirty-nine stocks from the Shanghai Stock...

This Paper examines the intraday behaviors of bid/ask spreads, depths and their determinants on an order-driven market in the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Our analysis shows that the intraday 5-minute bid/ask spreads display an L-shaped pattern and the depths exhibit an inverted L-shaped pattern....

An important assumption underlying traditional theories of financial time-series behaviour is that consecutive changes in the price of an asset (ie. asset returns) are independent of each other. For analysts seeking to predict the future value of an asset, this implies that the best step-ahead...