Below is a table showing GMO's 2016 estimates of different assets' durations, appearing in Slater (2017).
If you were certain that interest rates would fall more than the market expects, into what asset might you allocate more funds?
Which of the following statements about bond convexity is NOT correct?
Question 1022 inflation linked bond, breakeven inflation rate, inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows
Below is a graph of 10-year US treasury fixed coupon bond yields (red), inflation-indexed bond yields (green) and the 'breakeven' inflation rate (blue). Note that inflation-indexed bonds are also called treasury inflation protected securities (TIPS) in the US. In other countries they're called inflation-linked bonds (ILB's). For more information, see PIMCO's great article about inflation linked bonds here.
The 10 year breakeven inflation rate (blue) equals the:
PIMCO gives the following example of an Inflation Linked Bond (ILB), called Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) in the US.
How do ILBs work?
An ILB’s explicit link to a nationally-recognized inflation measure means that any increase in price levels directly translates into higher principal values. As a hypothetical example, consider a $1,000 20-year U.S. TIPS with a 2.5% coupon (1.25% on semiannual basis), and an inflation rate of 4%. The principal on the TIPS note will adjust upward on a daily basis to account for the 4% inflation rate. At maturity, the principal value will be $2,208 (4% per year, compounded semiannually). Additionally, while the coupon rate remains fixed at 2.5%, the dollar value of each interest payment will rise, as the coupon will be paid on the inflation-adjusted principal value. The first semiannual coupon of 1.25% paid on the inflation-adjusted principal of $1,020 is $12.75, while the final semiannual interest payment will be 1.25% of $2,208, which is $27.60.
Forecast the semi-annual coupon paid in 10 years based on the bond details given above. The 20th semi-annual coupon, paid in 10 years, is expected to be:
Question 1023 monetary policy, inflation, breakeven inflation rate
If the breakeven inflation rate was far above the US Fed's long term 2% average inflation target, the Fed would be expected to:
Former Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Phil Lowe says that the RBA cash rate is the interest rate in the Australian:
Former RBA Governor Phil Lowe says that if the economy is growing very strongly, then prices might be growing too:
Former RBA Governor Phil Lowe says that when the RBA raise interest rates, homeowners' mortgage loan interest expense will be:
Question 1019 RBA cash rate, monetary policy, wealth effect
Former RBA Governor Phil Lowe says that when the RBA raise the cash rate, asset prices tend to:
A stock has a beta of 1.2. Its next dividend is expected to be $20, paid one year from now.
Dividends are expected to be paid annually and grow by 1.5% pa forever.
Treasury bonds yield 3% pa and the market portfolio's expected return is 7% pa. All returns are effective annual rates.
What is the price of the stock now?
Question 989 PE ratio, Multiples valuation, leverage, accounting ratio
A firm has 20 million stocks, earnings (or net income) of $100 million per annum and a 60% debt-to-equity ratio where both the debt and asset values are market values rather than book values. Similar firms have a PE ratio of 12.
Which of the below statements is NOT correct based on a PE multiples valuation?
Question 990 Multiples valuation, EV to EBITDA ratio, enterprise value
A firm has:
2 million shares;
$200 million EBITDA expected over the next year;
$100 million in cash (not included in EV);
1/3 market debt-to-assets ratio is (market assets = EV + cash);
4% pa expected dividend yield over the next year, paid annually with the next dividend expected in one year;
2% pa expected dividend growth rate;
40% expected payout ratio over the next year;10 times EV/EBITDA ratio.
30% corporate tax rate.
The stock can be valued using the EV/EBITDA multiple, dividend discount model, Gordon growth model or PE multiple. Which of the below statements is NOT correct based on an EV/EBITDA multiple valuation?
A company increases the proportion of debt funding it uses to finance its assets by issuing bonds and using the cash to repurchase stock, leaving assets unchanged.
Ignoring the costs of financial distress, which of the following statements is NOT correct:
A new company's Firm Free Cash Flow (FFCF, same as CFFA) is forecast in the graph below.
To value the firm's assets, the terminal value needs to be calculated using the perpetuity with growth formula:
###V_{\text{terminal, }t-1} = \dfrac{FFCF_{\text{terminal, }t}}{r-g}###
Which point corresponds to the best time to calculate the terminal value?
An old company's Firm Free Cash Flow (FFCF, same as CFFA) is forecast in the graph below.
To value the firm's assets, the terminal value needs to be calculated using the perpetuity with growth formula:
###V_{\text{terminal, }t-1} = \dfrac{FFCF_{\text{terminal, }t}}{r-g}###
Which point corresponds to the best time to calculate the terminal value?
A new company's Firm Free Cash Flow (FFCF, same as CFFA) is forecast in the graph below.
To value the firm's assets, the terminal value needs to be calculated using the perpetuity with growth formula:
###V_{\text{terminal, }t-1} = \dfrac{FFCF_{\text{terminal, }t}}{r-g}###
Which point corresponds to the best time to calculate the terminal value?
Use the below information to value a levered company with constant annual perpetual cash flows from assets. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now, so a perpetuity can be used to value this firm. Both the operating and firm free cash flows are constant (but not equal to each other).
Data on a Levered Firm with Perpetual Cash Flows | ||
Item abbreviation | Value | Item full name |
##\text{OFCF}## | $100m | Operating free cash flow |
##\text{FFCF or CFFA}## | $112m | Firm free cash flow or cash flow from assets (includes interest tax shields) |
##g## | 0% pa | Growth rate of OFCF and FFCF |
##\text{WACC}_\text{BeforeTax}## | 7% pa | Weighted average cost of capital before tax |
##\text{WACC}_\text{AfterTax}## | 6.25% pa | Weighted average cost of capital after tax |
##r_\text{D}## | 5% pa | Cost of debt |
##r_\text{EL}## | 9% pa | Cost of levered equity |
##D/V_L## | 50% pa | Debt to assets ratio, where the asset value includes tax shields |
##t_c## | 30% | Corporate tax rate |
What is the value of the levered firm including interest tax shields?
Use the below information to value a levered company with constant annual perpetual cash flows from assets. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now, so a perpetuity can be used to value this firm. Both the operating and firm free cash flows are constant (but not equal to each other).
Data on a Levered Firm with Perpetual Cash Flows | ||
Item abbreviation | Value | Item full name |
##\text{OFCF}## | $48.5m | Operating free cash flow |
##\text{FFCF or CFFA}## | $50m | Firm free cash flow or cash flow from assets |
##g## | 0% pa | Growth rate of OFCF and FFCF |
##\text{WACC}_\text{BeforeTax}## | 10% pa | Weighted average cost of capital before tax |
##\text{WACC}_\text{AfterTax}## | 9.7% pa | Weighted average cost of capital after tax |
##r_\text{D}## | 5% pa | Cost of debt |
##r_\text{EL}## | 11.25% pa | Cost of levered equity |
##D/V_L## | 20% pa | Debt to assets ratio, where the asset value includes tax shields |
##t_c## | 30% | Corporate tax rate |
What is the value of the levered firm including interest tax shields?
Use the below information to value a levered company with annual perpetual cash flows from assets that grow. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now. Note that ‘k’ means kilo or 1,000. So the $30k is $30,000.
Data on a Levered Firm with Perpetual Cash Flows | ||
Item abbreviation | Value | Item full name |
##\text{OFCF}## | $30k | Operating free cash flow |
##g## | 1.5% pa | Growth rate of OFCF |
##r_\text{D}## | 4% pa | Cost of debt |
##r_\text{EL}## | 16.3% pa | Cost of levered equity |
##D/V_L## | 80% pa | Debt to assets ratio, where the asset value includes tax shields |
##t_c## | 30% | Corporate tax rate |
##n_\text{shares}## | 100k | Number of shares |
Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Use the below information to value a mature levered company with growing annual perpetual cash flows and a constant debt-to-assets ratio. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now, so a perpetuity can be used to value this firm. The firm's debt funding comprises annual fixed coupon bonds that all have the same seniority and coupon rate. When these bonds mature, new bonds will be re-issued, and so on in perpetuity. The yield curve is flat.
Data on a Levered Firm with Perpetual Cash Flows | ||
Item abbreviation | Value | Item full name |
##\text{OFCF}_1## | $12.5m | Operating free cash flow at time 1 |
##\text{FFCF}_1 \text{ or }\text{CFFA}_1## | $14m | Firm free cash flow or cash flow from assets at time 1 |
##\text{EFCF}_1## | $11m | Equity free cash flow at time 1 |
##\text{BondCoupons}_1## | $1.2m | Bond coupons paid to debt holders at time 1 |
##g## | 2% pa | Growth rate of OFCF, FFCF, EFCF and Debt cash flow |
##\text{WACC}_\text{BeforeTax}## | 9% pa | Weighted average cost of capital before tax |
##\text{WACC}_\text{AfterTax}## | 8.25% pa | Weighted average cost of capital after tax |
##r_\text{D}## | 5% pa | Bond yield |
##r_\text{EL}## | 13% pa | Cost or required return of levered equity |
##D/V_L## | 50% pa | Debt to assets ratio, where the asset value includes tax shields |
##n_\text{shares}## | 1m | Number of shares |
##t_c## | 30% | Corporate tax rate |
Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Over the next year, the management of an unlevered company plans to:
- Make $5m in sales, $1.9m in net income and $2m in equity free cash flow (EFCF).
- Pay dividends of $1m.
- Complete a $1.3m share buy-back.
Assume that:
- All amounts are received and paid at the end of the year so you can ignore the time value of money.
- The firm has sufficient retained profits to legally pay the dividend and complete the buy back.
- The firm plans to run a very tight ship, with no excess cash above operating requirements currently or over the next year.
How much new equity financing will the company need? In other words, what is the value of new shares that will need to be issued?
Your friend just bought a house for $1,000,000. He financed it using a $900,000 mortgage loan and a deposit of $100,000.
In the context of residential housing and mortgages, the 'equity' or 'net wealth' tied up in a house is the value of the house less the value of the mortgage loan. Assuming that your friend's only asset is his house, his net wealth is $100,000.
If house prices suddenly fall by 15%, what would be your friend's percentage change in net wealth?
Assume that:
- No income (rent) was received from the house during the short time over which house prices fell.
- Your friend will not declare bankruptcy, he will always pay off his debts.
One year ago you bought $100,000 of shares partly funded using a margin loan. The margin loan size was $70,000 and the other $30,000 was your own wealth or 'equity' in the share assets.
The interest rate on the margin loan was 7.84% pa.
Over the year, the shares produced a dividend yield of 4% pa and a capital gain of 5% pa.
What was the total return on your wealth? Ignore taxes, assume that all cash flows (interest payments and dividends) were paid and received at the end of the year, and all rates above are effective annual rates.
Hint: Remember that wealth in this context is your equity (E) in the house asset (V = D+E) which is funded by the loan (D) and your deposit or equity (E).
Question 408 leverage, portfolio beta, portfolio risk, real estate, CAPM
You just bought a house worth $1,000,000. You financed it with an $800,000 mortgage loan and a deposit of $200,000.
You estimate that:
- The house has a beta of 1;
- The mortgage loan has a beta of 0.2.
What is the beta of the equity (the $200,000 deposit) that you have in your house?
Also, if the risk free rate is 5% pa and the market portfolio's return is 10% pa, what is the expected return on equity in your house? Ignore taxes, assume that all cash flows (interest payments and rent) were paid and received at the end of the year, and all rates are effective annual rates.
Question 800 leverage, portfolio return, risk, portfolio risk, capital structure, no explanation
Which of the following assets would you expect to have the highest required rate of return? All values are current market values.
Four retail business people compete in the same city. They are all exactly the same except that they have different ways of funding or leasing the shop real estate needed to run their retail business.
The two main assets that retail stores need are:
- Inventory typically worth $1 million which has a beta of 2, and;
- Shopfront real estate worth $1 million which has a beta of 1. Shops can be bought or leased.
Lease contract prices are fixed for the term of the lease and based on expectations of the future state of the economy. When leases end, a new lease contract is negotiated and the lease cost may be higher or lower depending on the state of the economy and demand and supply if the economy is:
- Booming, shop real estate is worth more and lease costs are higher.
- In recession, shop real estate is worth less and lease costs are low.
Which retail business person will have the LOWEST beta of equity (or net wealth)?
Question 69 interest tax shield, capital structure, leverage, WACC
Which statement about risk, required return and capital structure is the most correct?
A firm has a debt-to-assets ratio of 50%. The firm then issues a large amount of debt to raise money for new projects of similar market risk to the company's existing projects. Assume a classical tax system. Which statement is correct?
Question 121 capital structure, leverage, financial distress, interest tax shield
Fill in the missing words in the following sentence:
All things remaining equal, as a firm's amount of debt funding falls, benefits of interest tax shields __________ and the costs of financial distress __________.
Question 337 capital structure, interest tax shield, leverage, real and nominal returns and cash flows, multi stage growth model
A fast-growing firm is suitable for valuation using a multi-stage growth model.
It's nominal unlevered cash flow from assets (##CFFA_U##) at the end of this year (t=1) is expected to be $1 million. After that it is expected to grow at a rate of:
- 12% pa for the next two years (from t=1 to 3),
- 5% over the fourth year (from t=3 to 4), and
- -1% forever after that (from t=4 onwards). Note that this is a negative one percent growth rate.
Assume that:
- The nominal WACC after tax is 9.5% pa and is not expected to change.
- The nominal WACC before tax is 10% pa and is not expected to change.
- The firm has a target debt-to-equity ratio that it plans to maintain.
- The inflation rate is 3% pa.
- All rates are given as nominal effective annual rates.
What is the levered value of this fast growing firm's assets?
A firm has a debt-to-equity ratio of 25%. What is its debt-to-assets ratio?
A firm has a debt-to-equity ratio of 60%. What is its debt-to-assets ratio?
Question 536 idiom, bond pricing, capital structure, leverage
The expression 'my word is my bond' is often used in everyday language to make a serious promise.
Why do you think this expression uses the metaphor of a bond rather than a share?
A firm has a debt-to-assets ratio of 20%. What is its debt-to-equity ratio?
Question 772 interest tax shield, capital structure, leverage
A firm issues debt and uses the funds to buy back equity. Assume that there are no costs of financial distress or transactions costs. Which of the following statements about interest tax shields is NOT correct?
One year ago you bought a $1,000,000 house partly funded using a mortgage loan. The loan size was $800,000 and the other $200,000 was your wealth or 'equity' in the house asset.
The interest rate on the home loan was 4% pa.
Over the year, the house produced a net rental yield of 2% pa and a capital gain of 2.5% pa.
Assuming that all cash flows (interest payments and net rental payments) were paid and received at the end of the year, and all rates are given as effective annual rates, what was the total return on your wealth over the past year?
Hint: Remember that wealth in this context is your equity (E) in the house asset (V = D+E) which is funded by the loan (D) and your deposit or equity (E).
In the home loan market, the acronym LVR stands for Loan to Valuation Ratio. If you bought a house worth one million dollars, partly funded by an $800,000 home loan, then your LVR was 80%. The LVR is equivalent to which of the following ratios?
An analyst is valuing a levered company whose owners insist on keeping a constant market debt to assets ratio into the future.
The analyst is wondering how asset values and other things in her model will change when she changes the forecast sales growth rate.
Which of the below values will increase as the forecast growth rate of sales increases, with the debt to assets ratio remaining constant?
Assume that the cost of debt (yield) remains constant and the company’s asset beta will also remain constant since any expansion (or downsize) will involve buying (or selling) more of the same assets.
The analyst should expect which value or ratio to increase when the forecast growth rate of sales increases and the debt to assets ratio remains unchanged? In other words, which of the following values will NOT remain constant?
Question 959 negative gearing, leverage, capital structure, interest tax shield, real estate
Last year, two friends Gear and Nogear invested in residential apartments. Each invested $1 million of their own money (their net wealth).
Apartments cost $1,000,000 last year and they earned net rents of $30,000 pa over the last year. Net rents are calculated as rent revenues less the costs of renting such as property maintenance, land tax and council rates. However, interest expense and personal income taxes are not deducted from net rents.
Gear and Nogear funded their purchases in different ways:
- Gear used $1,000,000 of her own money and borrowed $4,000,000 from the bank in the form of an interest-only loan with an interest rate of 5% pa to buy 5 apartments.
- Nogear used $1,000,000 of his own money to buy one apartment. He has no mortgage loan on his property.
Both Gear and Nogear also work in high-paying jobs and are subject personal marginal tax rates of 45%.
Which of the below statements about the past year is NOT correct?
Question 1032 inflation, percent of sales forecasting, no explanation
Investment bank Canaccord's Think Childcare (TNK) initiation of coverage states: "Building lease costs – Rent expense is the second largest cost and TNK reported rent/sales of 12.1%, within the industry range that we typically see as 12-14% of sales. TNK lease all their properties and do not intend to own property. Leases are generally long term with 10-15 year terms and additional options. Although terms vary across properties and landlords, rental increases are generally tied to the consumer price index (CPI)" (Canaccord, 2016).
Assuming that sales grow faster than the CPI, when Canaccord forecast TNK's building lease costs using the 'percent of sales' method, that proportion should:
Question 1029 Buffett ratio
Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked a question to ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood on 6 April 2021: "What do you think of the unusually high ratio of the S&P market cap to GDP?", to which Cathie Wood replied.
What are the units of this S&P500 market cap to GDP ratio, commonly known as the Buffett ratio?
Read these quotes from Adir Shiffman's 26 July 2021 article in the AFR 'Roll up, roll up and make a mint off Amazon sellers'.
"Amazon sellers outsource their warehousing and logistics to the tech giant in a model known as “fulfilled by Amazon”, or FBA. Joining FBA provides access to one of the world’s largest global warehousing operations and even a fleet of Boeing 747 cargo jets. Just as significantly, FBA sellers can much more easily qualify for Amazon’s Prime program, which guarantees free and fast shipping to members."
"Companies want to acquire and integrate a selection, or in business parlance, do a 'roll-up'."
"More than 100 companies are now racing to roll-up FBA sellers, and almost all have launched since 2017. At least a dozen of these boast war chests of more than $US100 million. The largest, Thrasio, was founded in 2018 and has raised more than $US1.7 billion. Thrasio targets businesses with high quality and differentiated products that generate $US1 to $US100 million in revenue annually" (Shiffman, 2021).
If Thrasio's total funds available to spend on the roll up is $1.7 billion, and it's buying targets at price-to-revenue multiples of 2, what's the largest number of firms with $50 million of annual revenue that it could buy?
What proportion of managers are evaluating projects correctly, based on table 8 from Meier and Tarhan's (2006) survey of corporate managers?
Table 8: Consistency of nominal or real hurdle rates and cash flows | |||
Hurdle rate | Cash flows | Total | |
---|---|---|---|
Nominal | Real | ||
Nominal | 29.8% | 11.6% | 41.3% |
Real | 19.8% | 38.4% | 58.7% |
Total | 49.6% | 50.4% | 100.0% |
Table 8 footnote: The rows in this cross-tabulation show whether the firm uses a nominal or real hurdle rate, the columns indicate whether cash flows are calculated in nominal or real terms. The fractions denote the number of firms for each combination relative to the total of 123 respondents that responded to both separate survey questions.
What proportion of managers are evaluating projects correctly?
Meier and Tarhan (2006) conducted an interesting survey of corporate managers. The results are copied in Table 7 below. What proportion of managers are evaluating levered projects correctly?
Table 7: Consistency between hurdle rate and the calculation of cash flows | |||||||
Hurdle rate | Cash flow calculation (see below notes) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(i) | (ii) | (iii) | (iv) | (v) | Other | Total | |
WACC | 11.3% | 34.8% | 1.7% | 3.5% | 18.3% | 1.7% | 71.3% |
Equity levered | 0.0% | 2.6% | 0.9% | 0.0% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 6.1% |
Equity unlevered | 1.7% | 1.7% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 1.7% | 0.9% | 7.8% |
Other | 2.6% | 5.2% | 1.7% | 0.9% | 3.5% | 0.9% | 14.8% |
Total | 16.5% | 44.4% | 5.2% | 5.2% | 24.4% | 4.4% | 100.0% |
The rows of the cross-tabulation indicate what the self-reported hurdle rate represents and the columns denote five different ways to calculate cash flows, (i) to (v), plus the “other” category. Each cell then displays the fraction of all 113 respondents for a given combination of what the hurdle rate represents and how the firm calculates its cash flows when evaluating a project.
The definitions of the cash flow calculations (i)-(v) are as follows:
(i) Earnings before interest and after taxes (EBIAT) + depreciation
(ii) Earnings before interest and after taxes (EBIAT) + depreciation – capital expenditures – net change in working capital
(iii) Earnings
(iv) Earnings + depreciation
(v) Earnings + depreciation – capital expenditures – net change in working capital
Assume that the WACC is after tax, the required return on unlevered equity is the WACC before tax, all projects are levered, the benefit of interest tax shields should be included in the valuation, earnings = net profit after tax (NPAT) and EBIAT = EBIT*(1-tc) which is often also called net operating profit after tax (NOPAT).
What proportion of managers are evaluating levered projects correctly?
Question 905 market capitalisation of equity, PE ratio, payout ratio
The below graph shows the computer software company Microsoft's stock price (MSFT) at the market close on the NASDAQ on Friday 1 June 2018.
Based on the screenshot above, which of the following statements about MSFT is NOT correct? MSFT's:
Which of the following statements about Macaulay duration is NOT correct? The Macaulay duration:
Find the Macaulay duration of a 2 year 5% pa annual fixed coupon bond which has a $100 face value and currently has a yield to maturity of 8% pa. The Macaulay duration is:
Find the Macaulay duration of a 2 year 5% pa semi-annual fixed coupon bond which has a $100 face value and currently has a yield to maturity of 8% pa. The Macaulay duration is:
Assume that the market portfolio has a duration of 15 years and an individual stock has a duration of 20 years.
What can you say about the stock's (single factor CAPM) beta with respect to the market portfolio? The stock's beta is likely to be:
Question 999 duration, duration of a perpetuity with growth, CAPM, DDM
A stock has a beta of 0.5. Its next dividend is expected to be $3, paid one year from now. Dividends are expected to be paid annually and grow by 2% pa forever. Treasury bonds yield 5% pa and the market portfolio's expected return is 10% pa. All returns are effective annual rates.
What is the Macaulay duration of the stock now?
A stock has a beta of 0.5. Its next dividend is expected to be $3, paid one year from now. Dividends are expected to be paid annually and grow by 2% pa forever. Treasury bonds yield 3% pa and the market risk premium (MRP) is 6% pa. All returns are effective annual rates.
Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Question 1034 duration, monetary policy, inflation, market efficiency
On 18 March 2022 the AFR's James Thomson wrote: "In a world where the bombs are still falling in Ukraine and the Fed is just getting started on what looks likely to be a year-long cycle of rising interest rates, it would take a certain amount of bravery to embrace the sort of high-tech, long duration plays that Wood favours" (Thomson, 2022).
Which of the following US macro-economic data releases is most likely to cause Cathie Wood's ARK ETF share price to fall?
Question 918 duration, Macaulay duration, modified duration, bond convexity
A fixed coupon bond’s modified duration is 10 years, and yields are currently 5% pa compounded annually. Which of the following statements about the bond is NOT correct?
An analyst has prepared a discounted cash flow model to value a firm's share price. A sensitivity analysis data table with ‘conditional formatting’ shading is shown below. The table shows how changes in the weighted average cost of capital (WACC, left column) and terminal value growth rate (top row) affect the firm's model-estimated share price.
The base case estimates are shown in bold.
Which of the following statements is NOT correct? The model-estimated share price would normally be expected to:
Canaccord conducts a sensitivity analysis of the Israeli pharmaceutical firm InterCure's (INCR) estimated share price in figure 33 on page 30:
Estimate the Macaulay duration of INCR's equity. The Macaulay duration is approximately:
Question 1039 gross domestic product, inflation, business cycle
In this business cycle graph shown in the RBA's article explaining recessions, how might 'output' on the y-axis be measured?
The ‘output’ y-axis amount in the business cycle chart can be measured by:
Question 852 gross domestic product, inflation, employment, no explanation
When the economy is booming (in an upswing), you tend to see:
Calculate Australia’s GDP over the 2016 calendar year using the below table:
Australian Gross Domestic Product Components | ||||
A$ billion, 2016 Calendar Year from 1 Jan 2016 to 31 Dec 2016 inclusive | ||||
Consumption | Investment | Government spending | Exports | Imports |
971 | 421 | 320 | 328 | 344 |
Source: ABS 5206.0 Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product. Table 3. Expenditure on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Current prices.
Over the 2016 calendar year, Australia’s GDP was:
Question 841 gross domestic product, government spending
The government spends money on:
- Goods and services such as defence, police, schools, hospitals and roads; and
- Transfer payments (also called welfare) such as the pension, dole, disability support and student support.
When calculating GDP (=C+I+G+X-M), the ‘government spending’ component (G) is supposed to include:
Question 850 gross domestic product, gross domestic product per capita
Below is a table showing some countries’ GDP, population and GDP per capita.
Countries' GDP and Population | |||
GDP | Population | GDP per capita | |
USD million | millions of people | USD | |
United States | 18,036,648 | 325 | 55,492 |
China | 11,158,457 | 1,383 | 8,066 |
Japan | 4,383,076 | 127 | 34,586 |
Germany | 3,363,600 | 83 | 40,623 |
Norway | 500,519 | 5 | 95,027 |
Source: "GDP and its breakdown at current prices in US Dollars" United Nations Statistics Division. December 2016.
Using this data only, which one of these countries’ citizens have the highest living standards?
Which form of production is included in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reported by the government statistics agency?
Question 1053 bond pricing, monetary policy, supply and demand
In his 31 August 2021 article 'The rich get richer and rates get lower', Robert Armstrong states that: "Savings chase returns, so when there are more savings and the same number of places to put them, rates of return must fall" (Armstrong, 2021).
Another way of saying that "rates of return must fall" when there are more savings (loanable funds) invested into fixed coupon government and corporate bonds, is that increased:
Question 1035 Minsky financial instability hypothesis, leverage
Which of the following statements about 'The Financial Instability Hypothesis' (Minsky, 1992) is NOT correct? Borrowers with sufficient income to pay:
Question 1036 Minsky financial instability hypothesis, leverage
Hyman Minsky, author of 'The Financial Instability Hypothesis' (1992), wrote:
In particular, over a protracted period of good times, capitalist economies tend to move from a financial structure dominated by hedge finance units to a structure in which there is large weight to units engaged in speculative and Ponzi finance. Furthermore, if an economy with a sizeable body of speculative financial units is in an inflationary state, and the authorities attempt to exorcise inflation by monetary constraint, then speculative units will become Ponzi units and the net worth of previously Ponzi units will quickly evaporate. Consequently, units with cash flow shortfalls will be forced to try to make position by selling out position. This is likely to lead to a collapse of asset values.
Which of the below statements explaining this quote is NOT correct?
What effect is being referred to in the following quote from the MARTIN model description?
Economy-wide models also account for feedback between economic variables. For example, an increase in aggregate demand will encourage firms to hire more workers, which raises employment and lowers the unemployment rate. The tightening of the labour market is likely to lead to an increase in wages growth. The resulting increase in household incomes is likely to lead to an increase in consumption, further raising aggregate demand. (Ballantyne et al, 2019)
The name of the effect being referred to is:
Question 1038 fire sale, leverage, no explanation
Listen to 'Lessons and Questions from the GFC' on 6 December 2018 by RBA Deputy Governor Guy Debelle from 17:58 to 20:08 or read the below transcript:
Guy Debelle talks about the GFC and says that the Australian government’s guarantee of wholesale debt and deposits on 12 October 2008 was "introduced to facilitate the flow of credit to the real economy at a reasonable price and, in some cases, alleviate the need for asset fire sales, which have the capacity to tip markets and the economy into a worse equilibrium... The crisis very much demonstrated the critical importance of keeping the lending flowing. The lesson is that countries that did that fared better than countries that didn't. That lesson is relevant to the situation today in Australia, where there is a risk that a reduced appetite to lend will overly curtail borrowing with consequent effects for the Australian economy." (Debelle, 2019)
When assets are sold in a fire sale, there’s usually a large increase in the:
In the 1997 Asian financial crisis many countries' exchange rates depreciated rapidly against the US dollar (USD). The Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian, Korean and Filipino currencies were severely affected. The below graph shows these Asian countries' currencies in USD per one unit of their currency, indexed to 100 in June 1997.
Of the statements below, which is NOT correct? The Asian countries':
Question 882 Asian currency crisis, foreign exchange rate, original sin, no explanation
In the 1997 Asian currency crisis, the businesses most vulnerable to bankruptcy were those that:
Question 1052 monetary policy, equilibrium real interest rate, marginal propensity to consume, gross domestic product, bond pricing
In the below chart by Rachel and Summers (2019), the red dotted line depicts the decline in advanced economies’ (AE) equilibrium real interest rate (R*) in percentage points since the 1970’s. The authors attribute this to the factors represented by columns above and below the x-axis. The sum of these columns is given by the black line labelled 'Total response of R* in the GE (general equilibrium) models'.
Which of the below statements about this graph is NOT correct?
Question 1013 book build, initial public offering, capital raising, demand schedule
A firm is floating its stock in an IPO and its underwriter has received the following bids, listed in order from highest to lowest share price:
IPO Book Build Bids | ||
Bidders | Share price | Number of shares |
$/share | millions | |
BidderA | 2.5 | 2 |
BidderB | 2 | 1.5 |
BidderC | 1.5 | 4 |
BidderD | 1 | 3 |
BidderE | 0.5 | 2 |
Suppose that the firm's owner wishes to sell all of their 8 million shares, so no new money will be raised and no money will re-invested back into the firm. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Question 1014 book build, initial public offering, capital raising, demand schedule
A firm is floating its stock in an IPO and its underwriter has received the following bids, listed in order from highest to lowest share price:
IPO Book Build Bids | ||
Bidders | Share price | Number of shares |
$/share | millions | |
BidderA | 2.5 | 2 |
BidderB | 2 | 1.5 |
BidderC | 1.5 | 4 |
BidderD | 1 | 3 |
BidderE | 0.5 | 2 |
Suppose that the firm's owner wishes to raise $6 million to expand the business by selling new stock in the initial public offering (IPO). The owner currently holds 8 million stock which are not for sale. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Question 566 capital structure, capital raising, rights issue, on market repurchase, dividend, stock split, bonus issue
A company's share price fell by 20% and its number of shares rose by 25%. Assume that there are no taxes, no signalling effects and no transaction costs.
Which one of the following corporate events may have happened?
Question 625 dividend re-investment plan, capital raising
Which of the following statements about dividend re-investment plans (DRP's) is NOT correct?
A company conducts a 2 for 3 rights issue at a subscription price of $8 when the pre-announcement stock price was $9. Assume that all investors use their rights to buy those extra shares.
What is the percentage increase in the stock price and the number of shares outstanding? The answers are given in the same order.
A firm wishes to raise $50 million now. They will issue 7% pa semi-annual coupon bonds that will mature in 6 years and have a face value of $100 each. Bond yields are 5% pa, given as an APR compounding every 6 months, and the yield curve is flat.
How many bonds should the firm issue?
A firm wishes to raise $100 million now. The firm's current market value of equity is $300m and the market price per share is $5. They estimate that they'll be able to issue shares in a rights issue at a subscription price of $4. All answers are rounded to 6 decimal places. Ignore the time value of money and assume that all shareholders exercise their rights. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
A firm wishes to raise $30 million now. The firm's current market value of equity is $60m and the market price per share is $20. They estimate that they'll be able to issue shares in a rights issue at a subscription price of $15. Ignore the time value of money and assume that all shareholders exercise their rights. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Question 803 capital raising, rights issue, initial public offering, on market repurchase, no explanation
Which one of the following capital raisings or payouts involve the sale of shares to existing shareholders only?
Question 1009 lemons problem, asymmetric information, adverse selection
Akerlof’s 1970 paper ‘The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism’ provides a famous example of asymmetric information leading to market failure. This example is commonly known as the ‘Lemons Problem’. Imagine that half of all second hand cars are:
- Lemons worth $5,000 each. Lemons are bad second-hand cars with hidden faults that only the seller knows about; and the other half are
- Plums worth $10,000 each. Plums are good second-hand cars without faults.
Car buyers can’t tell the difference between lemon and plum cars.
Car sellers know whether their car is a lemon or a plum since they’ve driven the car for a long time. However, plum car owners cannot prove their cars’ higher quality to buyers. Also, lemon car owners are known to dis-honestly claim that their cars are plums.
What will be the market price of second hand cars?
Question 1010 lemons problem, asymmetric information, adverse selection, fungible
The ‘Lemons Problem’ is likely to more adversely affect the desirability of which type of investment?
Question 1011 winners curse
A teacher fills up a large jar with coins. The jar is auctioned among a large class of wealthy accounting students who have never studied economics or finance.
The auction is conducted in the English style, which is as an open-outcry ascending auction. This means that the winning bidder is able to bid, win and pay slightly more than the second highest bidder's private valuation, but less than their own private valuation.
The jar of coins is not allowed to be weighed by students and is filled with different-valued coins so it’s difficult to value. Therefore there is a wide distribution of bidders’ fair value estimates. Students’ bids are purely profit-driven, there is no fame to be gained by being the winner or loser.
Assume that each bidder bids up to their personal estimate of the fair value of the jar of coins without observing the number of other bidders during the auction. The winning bidder is likely to:
Question 1012 moral hazard, principal agent problem, asymmetric information
When does the ‘principal-agent problem’ occur? Is it when:
I. The principal has conflicting incentives (moral hazard);
II. The agent has conflicting incentives (moral hazard);
III. The principal has incomplete information about the agent (asymmetric information); or
IV. The agent has incomplete information about the principal (asymmetric information)?
The principal-agent problem occurs when the following statements are true: