Business Commons^™

Two Essays In Empirical Asset Pricing, Abdullah M. Noman

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation consists of two essays. The first essay investigates the ability of prior returns, relative to some aggregate market returns, to predict future returns on industry style portfolios. By pooling time series of returns across industries for the period between July 1969 and June 2012, we find that prior returns differential predicts one month ahead returns negatively, even in the presence of a set of popular state variables. The predictability remains significant and negative for up to 5 month ahead returns. The predictability is shown to be robust to alternative specifications, estimation methodology and industry classifications. A possible explanation …

Analysis Of Investment Strategies: A New Look At Investment Returns, Jose F. Rubio

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1:

Intuition suggests that constraint investment strategies will result in losses due to a limited portfolio allocation. Yet prior research has shown that this is not the case for a particular set of constraint mutual funds so-called Socially Responsible Investing, SRI. In this paper I show that such assets do face loses to portfolio efficiency due to their limited asset universe. I contribute to the literature by employing two techniques to estimate asset performance. First, I estimate a DEA based efficiency score that allows for direct comparison between ex-post efficiency rankings and test the ex-ante relevance of such scores …

Examining The Predictors Of Fbs Football Revenue, Hayden Redd

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

College football, specifically the Football Bowl Subdivision, is an ever growing industry. As revenues continue to rise, it is important to be able to predict these revenues. A series of correlations and least square analysis were run on data from 2007-2011 to test their significance to football revenue. The analysis found strong correlations between all-time wins and all-time bowl appearances, average attendance, and historical grade. Strong correlations are seen between all-time bowl appearances and average attendance, historical grade, and recent grade. Strong correlations are seen between wins from 2007-2011 and recent grade. Strong correlations are seen between average attendance and …

The Impact Of Securitization, Bank Liquidity Shocks, And Government Intervention On Lending And Banks' Asset Composition: Evidence From The U.S. 2007-2009 Financial Crisis, Peter V. Egly

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The 2007- 2009 financial crisis creates a new wave of research opportunities in part due to the transformation of the banking system that led to the development of securitized banking that is supported by short term funding sources provided through the money and capital markets. The near collapse of the financial system ultimately led to the ensuing government intervention by the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury department to revive the frail U.S. economy. This dissertation has two basic research objectives: 1) investigate the impact of securitization and the subprime mortgage collapse on bank lending during the crisis and 2) …

Solar Technology In Our World- A Business Approach, Luke Ingalls Liska

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

New Covariance-Based Feature Extraction Methods For Classification And Prediction Of High-Dimensional Data, Mopelola Adediwura Sofolahan

Open Access Dissertations

When analyzing high dimensional data sets, it is often necessary to implement feature extraction methods in order to capture relevant discriminating information useful for the purposes of classification and prediction. The relevant information can typically be represented in lower-dimensional feature spaces, and a widely used approach for this is the principal component analysis (PCA) method. PCA efficiently compresses information into lower dimensions; however, studies indicate that it is not optimal for feature extraction especially when dealing with classification problems. Furthermore, for high-dimensional data having limited observations, as is typically the case with remote sensing data and nonstationary data such as …

Women In The Workforce: An In-Depth Analysis Of Gender Roles And Compensation Inequity In The Modern Workplace, Rebecca L. Ziman

Honors Theses and Capstones

This paper explores the increase in participation and education of American women in the workforce with a special focus on women in business and accounting roles. The paper then goes on to discuss the wage gap between genders, how to remedy inequality in the workplace, and highlights several reasons why pursing a solution to gender inequality is beneficial for both the employee and the company.

Leverage Buy-Out Case Study, Binh Duc Nguyen

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

How Does Asymmetric Information Relate To Investment Efficiency? Evidence From Analysts' Earnings Forecasts And Daily Stock Trading, Lingmin Xie

Theses & Dissertations

The adverse selection and agency cost theories suggest that the informational transparency of a firm can help to reduce over- or under-investment. This thesis examines how information asymmetry influences firm-level investment efficiency for companies listed in the U.S. market from 1993 to 2009. Information asymmetry is measured by the dispersion and error of the earnings forecasts made by financial analysts. I investigate how information asymmetry affects firms’ proneness to overor under-invest and the firms’ deviations from the investment levels predicted by investment opportunities. To be consistent with the prior literature, I also use the volatility of daily stock returns and …

Institutional Stock Ownership And Corproate Dividend Policy : Evidence From China, Jianghua Shen

Theses & Dissertations

Agency theory suggests that institutional stockholders are able to influence the dividend policies of listed firms with the underlying objective of reducing a firm’s agency costs. This study explores the causal effects of institutional ownership on dividend policies for the firms listed in China. Using various measures of institutional ownership and dividend policy, I find that mutual fund ownership in a firm causes it to pay out more cash dividends or to initiate cash dividends. These effects are mainly evident in the firms controlled by the state and regional governments and those with relatively high free cash flows. The effects …

Three Essays In Financial Economics, Ivan F. Julio

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Two Essays On The Efficiency, Diversification, And Performance Of Financial Institutions, Abu Khan

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In the first chapter I investigate the change in operating performance, efficiency and value addition of US bank merger and acquisition after GLBA. I extend the previous research by combining all the previous methodology used in merger literature and added a new methodology namely Expected EVA improvement. I will test whether these performance metrics have similar results or the performance of merger vary depending on the measurements. I will also examine the factors that have significant impact on the change in the banks’ performance.

My results show that industry-adjusted operating performance of merged banks increases significantly after a merger.I also …

Does Industry-Specific Expertise Improve Board Functioning? Evidence From Forced Bank Ceo Turnovers, Zhongdong Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates whether independent directors’ expertise in the industry in which the firm operates improves board functioning. To assess the quality of board functioning, I examine firm performance following a CEO turnover. Using a sample of 173 bank CEO turnovers from 1995 to 2010, I find that the market responds more favorably to forced CEO turnover decisions when they are made by a board with more independent financial industry experts. I document that following a forced bank CEO turnover, improvements in bank performance are positively related to independent financial industry expertise on the board, while bank-risk taking is negatively …

Forecasting Foreign Exchange Rates, Timothy M. Znaczko

Applied Economics Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to seek answers to different questions regarding the forecasting of foreign exchange rates. Exchange rate movement is regularly monitored by central banks for macroeconomic analysis and market surveillance purposes. Results in the literature show exchange rate models perform poorly in out-of-sample prediction analysis, even though some models have good in-sample analysis. The results were found using methods including moving average, exponential smoothing, random walk, and Box-Jenkins transfer function. The questions that I ask are: how accurate are these models when compared to a random prediction of future exchange rates, and what variables, if any, …

High School Seniors' Financial Knowledge: The Impact Of Financial Literacy Classes And Developmental Assets, Kathy Ngoc Nguyen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Low levels of financial literacy among high school students are a growing concern in the United States. High school students lack the financial knowledge to make important financial decisions. Financial literacy and money management skills are important for high school students as they transition into an ever-changing economy. High school students, who are financially literate, are likely to develop positive financial behaviors and make positive financial decisions. Previous studies show that financial literacy classes can increase financial knowledge.

The present study has three objectives. First, this study examined whether the Money Management Skills for Young Adults Class increased high school …

Essays On Institutional Trading Around The World, Hui Xiao

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays on institutional trading around the world. The first essay (Chapter 1) investigates the trading behavior of institutional investors from 28 countries around the world. During the period from 1999 to 2008, we find strong empirical evidence that institutional investors tend to move their funds out of volatile foreign equity markets and back to their home markets, particularly following the recent 2007-2008 global financial crisis. Our results also show that institutional investors prefer to hold more liquid stocks in highly volatile markets, suggesting evidence of flight to liquidity. Institutional investors are also inclined to increase …

Does Analyst Experience Affect Their Understanding Of Non-Financial Information? An Analysis Of The Relation Between Patent Information And Analyst Forecast Errors, Taiwhun Taylor Joo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines whether analyst experience affects the relation between patent information and analyst forecast errors. U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles require that firms expense all in-house research and development (R&D) costs. This means that even when R&D activities produce intangible assets with future economic benefits, firms cannot capitalize R&D costs as assets. Consequently, financial statements are largely deficient in the information they provide regarding the output of R&D activities. However, patent information is one type of non-financial information about R&D output that is publicly available.

Using updated patent data, I confirm the results of prior studies that find a …

The Determinants And Consequences Of Ceo Cheap Stock In Ipos, Michael Dennis Stuart

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The term "cheap stock" describes undervalued stock options granted to CEOs and other key employees prior to initial public offerings (IPOs). Pre-IPO firms have incentives to issue cheap stock as compensation because it results in lower compensation expense on the income statement and in large cash windfalls to CEOs subsequent to the IPO. Because cheap stock results in an overstatement of earnings, the Securities and Exchange Commission frequently challenges the valuations of these grants, which makes cheap stock a key accounting issue in many IPOs. Using a sample of firms that completed IPOs between 2004 and 2007, I investigate the …

Do Changes In The Sg&A Ratio Provide Information About Changes In Future Earnings, Analyst Forecast Revisions, And Stock Returns?, Eugene Scott Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In fundamental analysis, increases in the ratio of selling, general and administrative (SG&A) costs to sales (SG&A ratio) are viewed as negative signals about future firm performance. However, this interpretation focuses on the overall change in the SG&A ratio and ignores the underlying changes in the components of the ratio. For example, prior literature finds that the interpretation offered by fundamental analysis does not hold during periods of decreasing sales. I contend that a further partitioning of the full sample into subsamples representing all possible combinations of changes in the components of the SG&A ratio, and the ratio itself, will …

Assessing Revenue Managers' Level Of Trust In Information Systems: An Exploratory Study Of Las Vegas Casino Resorts, Landon Taylor Shores

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined revenue managers' level of trust in their revenue management system (RMS) at Las Vegas casino resorts. The study utilized an e-mail interview to measure revenue managers' attitudes about their RMS's degree of reliability and dependability, the degree to which they trust their RMS's pricing recommendations, and if a revenue manager's level of trust in technology had any effect on their likelihood of trusting their RMS.

The study invited 11 property and corporate revenue managers from Las Vegas casino resorts to participate in an e-mail interview, with nine revenue managers agreeing to participate. The main findings of the …

Essays On The Relationship Between Investor Sentiment And Real Estate Investment Trusts, Daniel Huerta

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are federal tax-exempt firms originated in 1960 to allow investors participation in professionally managed real estate to attain greater portfolio diversification. Although REITs are often considered transparent and informationally efficient, extant literature suggests that investor behavioral biases impact their prices and returns. This dissertation examines the relationship between investor sentiment and REITs, contributing to the literature in the following distinct ways. First, I examine the contemporaneous and intertemporal impact of changes in sentiment on REIT returns making a distinction between sentiment derived from large institutional investors and small individual investors. Results suggest that sentiment from …

Tax Increment Financing Trends In Southern Maine 2001-2011, Kevin Price

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is an economic development tool authorized for use in 49 states and the District of Columbia. TIFs are a very popular economic development tool that allow for a low-cost way to fund development projects. A TIF is designed to turn an undesirable or underdeveloped area into a developed, revenue generating area. The restrictions as to the exact types of property that quality for TIF vary from state to state, but they generally are used to target underdeveloped areas to encourage growth. Maine places several limitations on TIFs including acreage caps, a value cap, a municipal indebtedness …

Two Essays On Ceo Inside Debt Compensation, Nilakshi Borah

Doctoral Dissertations

In the first chapter, I examine the effect CEO inside debt holdings on firm cash holdings, as measured by the ratio of cash and marketable securities to net assets using a sample of EXECUCOMP firms over the period of 2006 to 2008. Following prior literature on CEO inside debt holdings (Cassell et al., 2012), I use the following two measures as proxies for CEO inside debt compensation: (1) the CEO to firm debt/equity ratio, which is calculated as the CEO's debt/equity ratio scaled by the firm's debt to equity ratio and 2) an indicator variable equal to one when the …

International Banking Sector Linkages: Did The Global Financial Crisis Strengthen Or Weaken The Linkages?, James Edward Benton

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This dissertation examines the interactions or linkages between the U.S. banking sector and the other eight major banking center countries around the globe. I use the national banking sector index for each country over a ten year period as a proxy for reactions to external shocks and examine whether these shocks spillover from the U.S. to the other major banking center countries as measured through their respective indices. I examine both daily residual returns as well as return volatility to measure these interactions between indices.

This study uses a vector auto-regression moving average (VARMA) as well as Granger-causality Wald test …

Empirical Examination Of Quantitative Easing In Monetary Policy And Earning Management Of Financial Markets And Institutions, Ali Ashraf

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In the first chapter, I analyze the impact of changes in aggregate holding in special asset purchase programs by Federal Reserve Systems (FED) as an alternate monetary policy at aggregate level. Later, to complement the analysis of monetary impact at aggregate level, I also analyze the impact of monetary actions at bank stock level with a set of 186 banks. First, for the overall sample period, expected monetary shock has positive effect on bank stock return; however, unexpected shock component has otherwise negative impact. Second, during both conventional and QE regime, monetary shocks are not significant in explaining weekly stock …

Two Essays In Financial Economics, Eric J. Osmer

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays: the first investigates informed trading in the Chinese stock exchanges, and the second examines the persistency of correlation of currency future prices.

For the first essay, using a sample of Chinese firms dual-listed in both the China mainland stock exchange and the Hong Kong stock exchange, I investigate the two types of informed trading - insider trading and trading derived from better analysis in the A-and H-share markets. The results suggest that H-shares have relatively more informed trading based on better analysis. In addition, the results from the firm size regression can also be …

Examining Exchange Rate Exposure, Hedging And Executive Compensation In Us Manufacturing Industry, Mohammad N. Rahman

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In essay one, my primary objective is to see the sensitivity of foreign exchange rate risk on firm performance in US manufacturing industry and examine if the hedging help reduce the foreign exchange rate risk. I am particularly interested in manufacturing industry because of the nature of business operation of manufacturing firms. Manufacturing firms in US are not only exposed to foreign exchange fluctuation from sales and revenue but also are exposed to foreign exchange rate risk for procurement, placement and investment. I find that the firms with extreme foreign exchange rate risk exposure exhibit lower daily return and firms …

A Feasibility Study Of Agricultural Production Of Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, And Kale For San Ysidro Farms, Roy Orion Killgore

Agribusiness

The purpose of this study was to determine whether it is more profitable for San Ysidro Farms to establish a new commodity mix and grow brussel sprouts, cabbage, and kale in replace of broccoli and cauliflower or continue its current commodity mix for production. The goal is to determine whether the new commodity mix will bring greater profits during the months of January, February, and March.

The project represents a basic comparison technique of the different commodities grown for San Ysidro. Using the current 2013 cash flow statement and others from the previous production years, a comparison amongst the different …

Do Mutual Fund Managers Outperform By Low-Balling Their Benchmarks?, Matthew James Scala

Financial Analyst

Do mutual fund managers outperform through a bias toward smaller-cap stocks than represented by the benchmark index? This study attempts to explain mutual fund outperformance through testing the average market cap (AMC) of mutual funds relative to their respective benchmark indexes. If outperforming funds show a bias toward smaller average holdings, then outperformance may be attributed to the value premium associated with small-cap stocks. Using Morningstar Direct, excess returns and average market cap of Holdings were collected on a quarterly basis for 1542 actively managed funds citing the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400 and Russell 2000 as their primary benchmark. …

Essays On The Role Of Investment Banks As Ipo Underwriters, Mutual Fund Managers, And Merger Advisors, Tim Mooney

Theses and Dissertations

In my first essay, I examine whether the focus on advisors' merger completion abilities is driven by acquirers seeking to complete mergers unconditionally, regardless of value implications, or if it is driven by value-maximization considerations. Advisors that complete a higher percentage of announced mergers are associated with more certain future merger completion. Results reveal that completion expertise has positive value implications, but only for acquirers with strong corporate governance. Results also suggest that the level of corporate governance of the acquirer determines the value consequences of an advisor's merger completion expertise. In my second essay, I examine the way investment …