Business Commons^™

The Impact Of Subreddit Comments On Daily Return And Volume, Joey Wong

Honors College Theses

This paper examines the subreddit WallStreetBets and its online weekday posts discussing stock market trades. By collecting data from the subreddit and Yahoo Finance, linear regression models are done using Rstudio to determine the relationship and impact that the number of comments has on percentage change in return and volume. This study concludes that when it comes to the relationship between returns and the number of comments, it is insignificant. However, we find that trading volume is positively and significantly related to the number of comments.

Influence Of Moody’S Rating Downgrade And Upgrade On The U.S. Equity Market: A Case Study Of Ibm, Ford, And Boeing, Qianhe Zhang

Honors College Theses

The main purpose of my thesis is to determine the current influence of credit rating downgrades and upgrades made by Moody's on the U.S. equity market. Previous literature has already talked about the effect of credit ratings on stock or bond price, however, my paper is different from previous works. I will focus on a single nationally recognized credit rating organization; I will talk about the both downgrade effect and the upgrade effect; I will do a case study of the credit rating effect on Ford, IBM, and Boeing. The results indicates that overall, Moody’s rating announcements have an important …

Sloth Speed: Finance Classes Slow To Incorporate Important Research, Ellis Pristash

Honors College Theses

Traditional finance contains many models which misrepresent human behavior. In order to mathematicise the field and make it more like hard sciences, economics in the 20th century presupposed that people act “rationally.” In economics, rationality means adherence to the neoclassical model, which presents persons as utility maximizers. This presupposition was useful for certain applications but dominated the academic landscape. Later, the Chicago School of Economics built on the rationality premise, advocating less regulation in favor of the free market. The Efficient Markets Hypothesis was built on these same ideas and argued that markets have a wisdom that individuals do not. …

Fintech Regulations In The United States Compared To Regulations In Europe And Asia, Victoria Williams

Honors College Theses

Fintech, or financial technology, is an up and coming industry and yet at the same time has been around since the 1950s. In Europe and Asia, there has been a lot of innovation, and lawmakers have been forced to keep up with regulating the rapidly growing industry. However, the United States has not risen to the occasion of properly regulating this industry and can learn from countries in Europe and Asia on how to effectively regulate fintech. This essay explains generally what fintech is, why it must be properly regulated, how countries in Europe and Asia regulate it, and how …

Evaluating An Mlb General Manager’S Bang For Their Buck, Devin Mathura

Honors College Theses

With my passion for baseball, I decided to calculate the value of each player on an MLB active roster and determine whether they are underpaid or overpaid. I then used that information to evaluate and rank how efficient each MLB general manager utilizes their money on players. With the luxury tax becoming more of an issue for teams with high payrolls, there has been an emphasis on general managers to construct a team that will be highly competitive at a reasonably low price. In my report, I imported data that reflected the position for each player as well as their …

How Do Financial Institutions In China Mitigate Risks In Securitization Markets?, Tiantian Lyu

Honors College Theses

Asset securitization as the essential financial tool has increased the liquidity of underlying assets and promoted rapid economic development. In 2008, the outbreak of Subprime Mortgage Crisis that brought by the collapse of securitization triggered the U.S. securitization market to realize the risks involved in structured financial products, and thus facilitated the development of risk controlling tools. Through the analysis of securitization process, drivers, and credit rating agencies, the study concentrates on the formation of risks and modeling evaluation with evidence in both China and the U.S. markets. Statistical analysis was conducted on Chinese securitized products combining with risk management …

The New Financial Framework For The Cuban Non-State Sector, Pavel Vidal, P.V. Viswanath

Faculty Working Papers

A cornerstone of the current Cuban economic model reforms is its opening to the non-state small-scale sector. Using the results of a survey of non-state businesses, we look at the provision of financial services to the small- and medium-sized enterprises in the non-state sector from two perspectives: first, the nature of the new credit regulations and bank policies and how they accomplish the evaluation of credit to a hitherto non-existent sector; and second, how these small business clients view their relationship with their lender state banks. We look at Cuba from the perspective of a socialist economy in transition and …

Microfinance And The Decision To Invest In Children’S Education, P.V. Viswanath

Faculty Working Papers

Although one of the primary objectives of microfinance has been the reduction of poverty through the provision of credit for income-generating purposes, evidence of its impact on poverty has been mixed. Even if there is no direct impact of microfinance, there may be an indirect positive impact through the effect of microcredit availability on families’ decisions to invest in their children’s education. In this paper, I describe a study undertaken to gauge the impact of microcredit availability on education expenditures for children of clients of a South Indian microfinance institution. I first look at some determinants of the demand for …

Microcredit And Survival Microenterprises: The Role Of Market Structure, P.V. Viswanath

Faculty Working Papers

Poverty remains a pervasive problem all over the world, but the problem is worst in underdeveloped areas like Africa. While microfinance is supposed to address this problem through the promotion of viable businesses, it has not been very successful in helping survival microenterprises, i.e., businesses that the very poor with limited human capital have access to, in sectors with low barriers to entry and selling undifferentiated products. In this paper, I examine the role of market structure in mediating the impact of micro-lending to such survival enterprises. While there have been many evaluations of microfinance institutions (MFIs), there have been …

Eva: An Indicator Of Corporate Bankruptcy?, Amanda (Jinxian) Lu

Honors College Theses

Economic value added (EVA) analysis is one of the most common methods to evaluate company’s performance in terms of value creation, which involves ROIC (Return on Invested Capital) and WACC (Weighted Average Cost of Capital) as key drivers. Past studies evaluate the superiority of EVA over other measures of performance and relationship between EVA and stock returns. This paper analyzes the relationship between EVA and bankruptcy on 373 public traded companies in U.S. of which 178 companies filed for bankruptcy between the year of 2015 to October 2017. We present descriptive statistics, conduct univariae grouping tests and correlation between ROIC, …

Public Fund Strategic Asset Allocation To Hedge Funds: A Time Series Analysis, Morgan Steadwell

Honors College Theses

Public funds represent some of the U.S.’ largest institutional investors. These funds are a pool of money saved for retirement by those who are still working. Boards of Directors of these funds have strict standards for their investments, as the money they are investing is not their own; rather, it comes from the thousands of workers that pay into the funds. Alternative investments such as private equity, private debt, real assets, real estate, and hedge funds are historically more risky than traditional public equities or fixed income investments. Recently, public funds’ investments in hedge funds have been called into question …

Incubator-Induced Business Clusters: A Case Study, Bailey Tarpley

Honors College Theses

Incubator-induced business clusters are a new tool for governments wishing to economically revitalize geographic areas. However, this case study argues that the successful formation of a cluster through the use of a business incubator requires the presence of three important “cluster factors”: 1) resource dependence and integration of the four key players of a cluster 2) human capital aspects and 3) external intervention mechanisms aimed toward the creation of a cluster. The historical founding of Hollywood will be examined for these factors as well as the DUMBO incubator located in NYC. This case study will examine whether the situation in …

The Effect Of Restatements On Market Returns Following The Global Financial Crisis, Kyle O'Kane

Honors College Theses

This paper investigates whether stock markets react any differently to financial statement restatement information after the events of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. The research in this paper is trying to demonstrate that financial markets reacted negatively to restatement information following the passing of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, ascertain if markets reacted less negatively to post-financial crisis restatements than post-Sarbanes Oxley restatements, and determine whether markets reacted more negatively to restatements of core earnings following the financial crisis period. Little research surrounding the market effects of the financial crisis exist, and it was necessary to further study the effects …

Efinancial Health Synergy And Prevention Science, Nan Taylor

Cornerstone 1 Reports : Expansion and Enhancements of the Thinkfinity Platform

No abstract provided.

Efinancial Health, Nan Taylor

Cornerstone 1 Reports : Expansion and Enhancements of the Thinkfinity Platform

No abstract provided.

Efinancial Health: Discovering Synergies In The Promotion Of Physical, Mental, And Financial Health, Nan Taylor

Cornerstone 1 Reports : Expansion and Enhancements of the Thinkfinity Platform

No abstract provided.

Energy Sources And The Production Of Electricity In The United States, David Manukjan

Honors College Theses

The current sources of energy that the United States uses to produce electricity are costly, extremely damaging to the environment, and cause us to rely on other countries for our energy needs. The Obama Administration has begun working on replacing coal and oil with cleaner sources of energy. Over the last decade, alternative energy sources have been slowly gaining popularity as the American public learns more about climate change. However, the U.S. government will not use renewable energy as a complete substitute for fossil fuels in the immediate future because of their higher market price. The world is struggling to …

The Greek Financial Crisis: An Overview Of The Crisis In Entirety And Proposed Measures: Recommended Solutions And Results, Androniki Podaras

Honors College Theses

This paper examines the Greek financial crisis from 2009 in entirety and analyzes the best option for economic growth from this point forth. The history and culture of Greece is discussed, along with a background of the economy and several economic policies that led to the increased debt levels and the poor economic health of the country. The Gross Domestic Product of Greece and the inflation levels are analyzed to show the changes and signs of poor economic health, and one that was affected by the entry into the Eurozone in 2000.

Then, I discuss how this led to the …

A Web Application For Financial Trading Simulation, Li-Chiou Chen, Lixin Tao, Padma Kadiyala

Cornerstone 3 Reports : Interdisciplinary Informatics

No abstract provided.

Business Process Automation And Managerial Accounting: An Sap Plug And Play Module (Final Report), Picheng Lee, Principal Investigator, Christian N. Mady, Rudy Jacob, Chu-Hua Kuei

Cornerstone 3 Reports : Interdisciplinary Informatics

The primary aim of our project is to develop an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform that enables students at Pace to understand how different interdisciplinary areas in cross-unit and/or cross-enterprise decision making are related. ERP can help us do this since it allows a firm to automate and integrate its business processes, share common data and practices across the entire enterprise, and provide and access information in a real-time environment.

Ifrs V. U.S. Gaap: Impact On A Company's Earning And Activities, Linda Li

Honors College Theses

Should the United States (U.S.) companies use International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) instead of the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP)? This paper examines the degree of deviation between the firms' earnings, under both financial reporting languages, and the causes for the change in earnings. Utilizing two methods, introduced in this paper, as well as t-testing, the sampled firms reported higher earnings under IFRS. The change in earnings was caused by: financial instruments, minority interest, pension activities, and or share-based compensation activities. Based on the analyses, the firms appear healthier under IFRS than under the U.S. GAAP in terms …

Pension Plan Funding Effect On Shareholder Equity, Larisa Parchomovsky

Honors College Theses

A pension plan often tends to be one of the company’s biggest liabilities. Before 2008, pension plans were not directly included in the financial statements, but could only be found in the footnote disclosures. Such accounting convention essentially made pensions a type of off-balance sheet financing resulting in a misrepresentation of valuation ratios and earnings due to the exclusion of such a significant liability. The objective of this research is to determine whether the funded status of a pension plan will significantly affect a company’s shareholder equity. As part of this research, I analyzed 4 years (2001-2004) of financial statements …

Business Process Automation And Managerial Accounting: An Sap Plug And Play Module, Picheng Lee, Principal Investigator, Christian N. Madu, Rudy Jacob, Chu-Hua Kuei

Cornerstone 3 Reports : Interdisciplinary Informatics

The primary aim of our project is to develop an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform that enables students at Pace to understand how different interdisciplinary areas in cross-unit and/or cross-enterprise decision making are related. ERP can help us do this since it allows a firm to automate and integrate its business processes, share common data and practices across the entire enterprise, and provide and access information in a real-time environment.

Motivations For Us Foreign Direct Investment, Christina Buoninfante

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to determine US firms’ motivations for foreign direct investment and to explore to what extent US firms continue to invest into China and India. I first correlate the agricultural, industrial, and service sectors in the United States with those of China and India. I find that there is a positive relationship between the correlation of US sectors and the host country’s sectors and foreign direct investment into each sector. This supports the theory of Vernon’s product life cycle hypothesis, which explains that firms expand into lesser developed countries when their product becomes more sensitive …

The U.S. Economic Crisis: Another "Lost Decade"?, Paula Chungsathaporn

Honors College Theses

America is experiencing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression originating with problems from mortgage backed securities and seeping into every major sector in the economy. We have witnessed the downfall or government takeover of some of the most powerful companies in the country, contributing to the highest unemployment rate America has seen in decades. During the 1990s, Japan experienced what is commonly referred to as “the lost decade,” a period of prolonged stagnant growth. Many similarities can be drawn between the current U.S. crisis and the Japanese crisis of the late 90s. The macroeconomic conditions that caused the …

Indian Business Through Film, Collaborative Project

Dyson College- Seidenberg School of CSIS : Collaborative Projects and Presentations

This entry adheres to the use of the quad chart template to provide a succint description only of the current research project undertaken by the participants. It provides for the following information

1. Participants and Affiliations 2. Overall Project Goals 3. Illustrative picture 4. Specific research/artistic/pedagogic foci

Film Finance: Teaching/Research, Collaborative Project

Dyson College- Seidenberg School of CSIS : Collaborative Projects and Presentations

This entry adheres to the use of the quad chart template to provide a succinct description only of the current research project undertaken by the participants. It provides for the following information

1. Participants and Affiliations
2. Overall Project Goals
3. Illustrative picture
4. Specific research/artistic/pedagogic foci

Futility Of Stimulus Funds In The Middle Of Huge Trade Deficits, Narendra C. Bhandari

Faculty Working Papers

The U. S. is facing an unprecedented environment of increasing unemployment, declining income, disappearing middleclass, and mounting trade deficit (about $731 billion in 2007). The government is providing stimulus funds to a selected number of organizations to help solve these problems.

However, as long as the country continues to have huge trade deficits, these stimulus efforts may not help much, if at all. They may even worsen the economic situation. This could happen if the banking, insurance, construction, transportation, and other companies—receiving the stimulus funds—would offshore part of their production activities. Several American firms send certain number of jobs abroad …

Deficiencies Noted In Pcaob Inspections: Implications For Auditing Instruction, Bernard H. Newman, Mary Ellen Oliverio

Faculty Working Papers

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has responsibility for monitoring public accounting firms that provide audits for publicly owned companies. Among the duties assigned to the PCAOB was “conducting inspections of registered public accounting firms.” A strategy for such inspections was developed that includes reporting deficiencies judged to be significant for supporting conclusions made.

This paper presents a content analysis of deficiencies disclosed in the nine inspections (during three years) of three accounting firms, along with the largest four firms, that are inspected each year. Also discussed are the general implications for auditing teaching in colleges/universities and in continuing …

An Evaluation Of Credit Default Swap And Default Risk Using Barrier Option, Kevin L. Lam

Honors College Theses

Credit default swaps, a traded financial instrument that provides credit protection in exchange for a periodic premium, is at the forefront of the exponential growth in the credit derivatives market, which has revolutionized the way credit risk is managed in recent years. This project offers a review into the application of option pricing theory in the valuation of default risk under a plain vanilla analysis and introduces a theoretical model that uses barrier options as a potential and perhaps more accurate tool for assessing default risk and its implications for valuing credit default swaps.