Pricing anomalies in the Finnish stock market

The aim of this thesis is to examine whether the pricing anomalies exists in the Finnish stock markets by comparing the performance of quantile portfolios that are formed on the basis of either individual valuation ratios, composite value measures or combined value and momentum indicators. All the research papers included in the thesis show evidence of value anomalies in the Finnish stock markets. In the first paper, the sample of stocks over the 1991-2006 period is divided into quintile portfolios based on four individual valuation ratios (i.e., E/P, EBITDA/EV, B/P, and S/P) and three hybrids of them (i.e. composite value measures). The results show the superiority of composite value measures as selection criterion for value stocks, particularly when EBITDA/EV is employed as earnings multiple. The main focus of the second paper is on the impact of the holding period length on performance of value strategies. As an extension to the first paper, two more individual ratios (i.e. CF/P and D/P) are included in the comparative analysis. The sample of stocks over 1993- 2008 period is divided into tercile portfolios based on six individual valuation ratios and three hybrids of them. The use of either dividend yield criterion or one of three composite value measures being examined results in best value portfolio performance according to all performance metrics used. Parallel to the findings of many international studies, our results from performance comparisons indicate that for the sample data employed, the yearly reformation of portfolios is not necessarily optimal in order to maximally gain from the value premium. Instead, the value investor may extend his holding period up to 5 years without any decrease in long-term portfolio performance. The same holds also for the results of the third paper that examines the applicability of data envelopment analysis (DEA) method in discriminating the undervalued stocks from overvalued ones. The fourth paper examines the added value of combining price momentum with various value strategies. Taking account of the price momentum improves the performance of value portfolios in most cases. The performance improvement is greatest for value portfolios that are formed on the basis of the 3-composite value measure which consists of D/P, B/P and EBITDA/EV ratios. The risk-adjusted performance can be enhanced further by following 130/30 long-short strategy in which the long position of value winner stocks is leveraged by 30 percentages while simultaneously selling short glamour loser stocks by the same amount. Average return of the long-short position proved to be more than double stock market average coupled with the volatility decrease. The fifth paper offers a new approach to combine value and momentum indicators into a single portfolio-formation criterion using different variants of DEA models. The results throughout the 1994-2010 sample period shows that the top-tercile portfolios outperform both the market portfolio and the corresponding bottom-tercile portfolios. In addition, the middle-tercile portfolios also outperform the comparable bottom-tercile portfolios when DEA models are used as a basis for stock classification criteria. To my knowledge, such strong performance differences have not been reported in earlier peer-reviewed studies that have employed the comparable quantile approach of dividing stocks into portfolios. Consistently with the previous literature, the division of the full sample period into bullish and bearish periods reveals that the top-quantile DEA portfolios lose far less of their value during the bearish conditions than do the corresponding bottom portfolios. The sixth paper extends the sample period employed in the fourth paper by one year (i.e. 1993- 2009) covering also the first years of the recent financial crisis. It contributes to the fourth paper by examining the impact of the stock market conditions on the main results. Consistently with the fifth paper, value portfolios lose much less of their value during bearish conditions than do stocks on average. The inclusion of a momentum criterion somewhat adds value to an investor during bullish conditions, but this added value turns to negative during bearish conditions. During bear market periods some of the value loser portfolios perform even better than their value winner counterparts. Furthermore, the results show that the recent financial crisis has reduced the added value of using combinations of momentum and value indicators as portfolio formation criteria. However, since the stock markets have historically been bullish more often than bearish, the combination of the value and momentum criteria has paid off to the investor despite the fact that its added value during bearish periods is negative, on an average.

Sivilisaatioiden sodat, kulttuurikamppailut ja antiglobalismi Osa I

Abstract

Om caffé och de inhemska wäxter, som pläga brukas i des ställe

Invocatio: I.J.N.

Om den skada, som kjölden tilfogar åker- och trägårds skötseln i Finland

Invocatio: Med Guds Hjelp.

Disputatio politica

Invocatio: Deo duce et auspice.

Öfwer björckens egenskaper och nytta i den allmänna hushålningen

Invocatio: M.D.H.B.

Om liks begrafwande i kyrckor och kyrkogårdar

Painovuosi nimekkeestä.

Kort beskrifning öfwer den i Österbotn gångbara boskaps sjukan

Invocatio: I.J.N.

Världsbild under sammanställning : individ, ensamhet och gemenskap i Ulla-Lena Lundbergs författarskap

Subjektivitet och världsbild är studiens nyckeltermer. Jag undersöker temat ensamhet kontra gemenskap i Ulla-Lena Lundbergs författarskap. Inledningsvis antar jag inte bara att temat är centralt i författarskapet, utan också att individualism – som ett kännetecken för det moderna och senmoderna västerlandet – ofta ifrågasätts i Lundbergs verk. Med fokus på subjekt som ideologiska fenomen, knutna till tid och rum, är Sibirien. Ett självporträtt med vingar (1993) av särskilt intresse. Avhandlingen kan beskrivas som en dubbel analys av Sibirien, som analyseras både som en självbiografi och en antisjälvbiografi. Sibirien är ett individualistiskt uttryck men omfattar samtidigt kritik av individualism, som förknippas med ensamhet. Problematiken individ–omvärld och ensamhet–gemenskap, som är knuten till frågan om vad meningen med livet är, följs också genom sju av Lundbergs romaner. Studien utgör ett slags författarskapsstudie, eftersom Sibirien läses mot bakgrund av dessa verk och inte enbart mot bakgrund av den självbiografiska genren. Problematiken kan vara antingen uttalad eller implicerad i en kärleks- och dödstematik. Centralt i författarskapet är ett intresse för förmoderna och ickevästerländska kulturer, vilket får mig att fråga: Vilken betydelse har föreställningarna om ”det gamla” och ”det främmande” för ifrågasättandet av individualism? Författarskapet förstås här som en aktuell kommentar till dess utomlitterära samtid – med individualism som ett kännetecken och antiindividualism som ett annat.

Rummet i vårdandets värld

This study is made in the context of basic research within the field ofcaring science. The aim is to make a theoretical and ontological investigation of what the space is in the world of caring. The basic proposition is that the space, as a fundamental dimension, has an impact on how the appreciation of one's mental health and suffering is shaped, and vice versa. The overall purpose is to develop a theoretical model of space from the caring science point of view andalso to offer an ideal concept of space to caring science. Guided by a theoretical horizon (Eriksson 1993, Eriksson 1995, Eriksson 2001) and methodological approach grounded in Gadamer's philosophic and existential hermeneutics a three-stage analysis and interpretation is conducted. The hermeneutic spiral of this investigation starts through a procedure in accordance with Eriksson's model (1997) of concept definition. The goal is to clarify the etymology of the concept as well as semantic differences between synonymous concepts, i.e. to identify the different extents of the concept of `space` (`rum`) in order to bring these closer for an exploration. The second phase is to analyse and interpret a sample of narratives in order to explicate the ontological nature and meaning of the space. The material used here is literary texts. The goal is to clarify the characteristics of the very inside of the space when it is shaped in relation to the human being in encountering suffering. In the third phase an interview study is taken place. The focus of the study is directed towards the phenomenon of space as it is known by a patient in a landscape of psychiatric care, i.e. what the space is in a contextual meaning. Then, a gradual hermeneutic understanding of the space is attempted by using theories from the field of caring science as well as additional theories from other disciplines. Metaphors are used as they are vivid and expressive tools for generating meaning. Different metaphoric space formations depict here a variety of purports that, although not quite the same, share extensive elements. Six metaphorically summarized entities of meaning emerged. The comprehensive form of space is pointed out as the Mobile-Immobile Room. Furthermore, the Standby, the Asylum, the Wall and the Place. In the further dialogue with the texts the understanding has deepened ontologically. The theoretical model ofthe space sums up the vertical, horizontal and the inward extent of deepness inthe movement of mental health. Three entities of ontological meaning have emerged as three significant rooms: the Common Land emerges as the ideal concept of mutual creation in the freedom of doing, being and becoming health. On the interpersonal level it means freedom, which includes sovereignty, choice and dignity of the human being. The Ice World signifies, ultimately, the space as a kind of frozenness of despair which "wallpapers" the person's entire being in the world in the drama of suffering. The Spiritual Home is shaped when the human being has acquired the very core of his/her inner and outer placeness as a kind of "at-homeness" and rootedness. Time is a central element and the inward extent of deepness of this trialectic space. Each of the metaphors is then the human being's unique, although even paradoxical, way of conceiving reality, and mastering spiritual suffering. They condense characteristic structures and patterns of dynamic scenery, which take place within the movement of health. The space encloses a contradictory spatiality constituted through the dynamic field of meaningfulness and meaninglessness. Anyway, it is not through a purging of these contradictions but through bringing them together in a drama of suffering that the space is shaped as ontologically good and meaningful in the world of caring.

Academiskt försök, til en physico-oeconomisk beskrifning öfwer Hwittis sokn, i Björneborgs län : ... under ... Pehr Adrian Gadds inseende, såsom et academiskt snille-prof utgifwit och förswaradt, den 26. Maji, 1759. Af Ephraim Carenius, satacundensis.

Dedicated to: Carl Fredrich Mennander, Nils Idman, Michaël Forselius, Jacob Fårskål, Anders Berendt Gadd, Georg Haveman, Catharina Tackou, née Morin, Jacob Carenius.

"Kyrkans egna angelägenheter" : en kyrkorättslig undersökning av kyrkans egna angelägenheter i kyrkolagstiftningen om Evangelisk-lutherska kyrkan i Finland

I JD, docent Pekka Leinos avhandling i kyrkorätt analyseras hur begreppet ”endast kyrkans egna angelägenheter” har uppfattats av Evangelisk-lutherska kyrkan i Finland i 1869, 1964 och 1993 års kyrkolagar. Det är fråga om hur man i dessa författningar (kyrkolagarna, kyrkoordningen) uppfattar synen på kyrkan, kyrkans lära, kyrkorätten och lutherdomens väsen. I avhandlingen analyseras hur man som ”endast [blott] kyrkans egna angelägenheter” (§ 14 i 1869 års kyrkolag) har förstått kyrkans apostoliska undervisning och den praxis som man i enlighet med den följt i kyrkan, så som reformatorerna förstod denna när lutherdomen uppstod, och så som den kommer till uttryck i evangelisk-lutherska kyrkans bekännelseskrifter. I avhandlingen vidareutvecklas den kyrkorättsliga doktrin som författaren började med i sin tidigare doktorsavhandling Kirkkolaki vai laki kirkosta som var en rättsvetenskaplig och lagsystematisk undersökning av det unika kyrkolagssystemet i Finland. Den förra avhandlingen koncentrerade sig på kyrkan som en sociologisk gemenskap eller ett rättssamfund och på kyrkolagen som en juridisk författning, medan det nya perspektivet i denna avhandling i högre grad är att kyrkan är en trosgemenskap och innehållet i de tre kyrkolagarna analyseras utgående från detta perspektiv. Kyrkan verkar som en trosgemenskap i enlighet med sin lära. Särskild vikt fästs i denna avhandling vid hur ärenden som gäller kyrkans lära har förståtts som endast kyrkans egna angelägenheter samt om man över huvud, och i så fall hur, genom kyrkolagen kan göra kyrkans lära och dess trossatser till en del av den nationella rättsordningen. Med tanke på den kyrkorättsliga doktrinen är det centralt att utreda på vad den i kyrkan rådande uppfattningen av kyrkorätt och kyrkans rätt grundar sig.