Date of Award

Spring 5-2018

Degree Type

Dissertation-Restricted

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Program

Financial Economics

Department

Economics and Finance

Major Professor

Atsuyuki Naka, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Walter J. Lane, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Tarun K. Mukherjee, D.B.A.

Fourth Advisor

Mohammad K. Hassan, Ph.D.

Abstract

This dissertation contains two essays. The first essay investigates the measure of FX liquidity and determinants of the change in FX liquidity. Using 20 cross currency exchange rates over spanning period of 1999 to 2016, funding constraints and global risks are responsible for the main drivers of changing in FX liquidity. The magnitudes of both G7 and emerging volatility index are offsetting each other in all the regression models indicating that FX investors take diversification trading strategies to diversify their portfolios. The financial crisis provides an evidence that the more financial constraint issues contribute to the change in FX market illiquidity more than non-financial crisis period. Extending to liquidity predictability, I find, however, that the lag of market FX liquidity is responsible for the change in FX liquidity than any other explanatory variables

My second essay investigates the momentum returns of U.S. equities by presenting comprehensive approaches. Traditionally, momentum portfolios are constructed by ranking based on excess returns. Using this sorting technique, I confirm that there is a presence of momentum returns in U.S. equities for all of the 48 industries. The results also indicate that the portfolios that are sorted by idiosyncratic volatility as well as by diversification strategy cannot achieve the highest returns as for sorting based on excess returns. Further, I examine the momentum portfolio predictability using the inverse conditional volatility proposed by Moreira and Muir (2017), and show that the momentum returns are affected by the size of liquidity and the risk factors rather than by the economic variables.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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