Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Media Attention & Executive Pay In The Netherlands, Jordan Otten

Jordan Otten

This report is centered around three research questions on newspaper coverage and executive compensation in The Netherlands. 1) How has the coverage developed over the years? 2) How selective are newspapers in their coverage? And 3) What are the influences of newspaper coverage on executive compensation?

Based on the articles that have appeared in the period 1998- mid 2009, it can be concluded that the attention by newspapers is not only of the most recent years. Newspapers do not systematically focus on the better or worse performing companies and do also not focus on the higher or highest paid executives. …

Non-Profit Organizations In A Down Economy: The Financial Performance Of Higher Education Institutions In The New England Area, Yuanjun Li

Honors Projects in Finance

An economic recession affects an entire economy, including the non-profit sector. The impact could result from changes in government support, a decrease in donations, investment income, service fees or a combination. Many private universities and colleges, which rely on tuition and endowment, have been affected by a dip in enrollments, while their endowments shrink because of the recession and declining stock values. This study will examine how an economic recession can affect non-profit organizations, focusing on private, four-year higher education institutions in New England. Different types and sizes of schools will be affected differently. Since the large, well-known schools have …

The Impact Of Inflation Targeting Regime On The Relationship Between Stock Returns And Inflation: International Evidence, Unro Lee

Eberhardt School of Business Faculty Articles

Twenty six industrialized and emerging countries have adopted inflation targeting monetary policy since 1990 to combat persistently high inflation rate. This policy accords either the government and/or the central bank the authority to assign an explicit numerical target for inflation rate and implement an appropriate monetary policy to achieve its goal. This study investigates whether the adoption of inflation targeting strategy has affected the relationship between stock returns and inflation rate. Specifically, this study tests a hypothesis that, in an economy where inflation targeting has been adopted as a new monetary policy strategy, real stock returns should be sensitive to …

Economic Thinking And Risk Attitudes: An Empirical Study, Peter Slepcevic-Zach, Ph.D., Thomas Koeppel

International Journal for Business Education

In the light of the current economic crisis, which had its roots in high risk dealings in the international financial markets, the question how economically minded students are and what propensity towards risk they have, are essential to improving their financial literacy. In a broad survey including economic and non-economic schools 649 students aged 14 and 18 were questioned. In this paper results are presented and implications for classroom teaching and curricular development are derived.

Ua37/29 Gary Ransdell - Federal Reserve Board - Federal Reserve's Role In Bank Supervision, St. Louis Federal Reserve Board

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Email sent to members of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Board of testimony given by Ben Bernanke to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services.

Growth In Russia's Federal Districts, 1994-2003, Gregory J. Brock

Finance and Economics Faculty Publications

Russian macroeconomic growth in the transition era is analysed across federal districts using a neoclassical production function often found in studies of Soviet-era economic growth. An adjusted capital stock series for Russian regions is created and used in the aggregate production function for 1995–2003 to analyse growth across the 11 federal districts in Russia. Federal district output growth is found to be explained well by neoclassical growth theory, indicating that poorer regions may converge to richer regions, thereby strengthening the Russian Federation. Federal districts also have high capital/labour ratios, suggesting that expanded regional domestic and foreign investment across Russia in …

The Impact Of The Asian Economic Crisis In Thailand, Craig C. Julian

Dr Craig C Julian

Traces the economic development of Thailand since 1945, referring to relevant research, and analyses the reasons why it was the first Southeast Asian country to collapse in the 1997 economic crisis: large current account deficits, excessive external debt, a collapse in the property sector, exchange rate mismanagement and political instability. Considers its future prospects and shows statistics on economic growth and inflation for the world as a whole and various countries and groups within it.

Asset Allocation For Retirement: Simple Heuristics And Target-Date Funds, Steven D. Dolvin, William K. Templeton, William Rieber

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

We examine common asset allocation strategies for retirement investing, considering both static and dynamic approaches, as well as those allocation policies used by leading target-date fund providers. We studied the average performance of each strategy over historical rolling periods (that is, bootstrapping), using actual annual returns starting in 1926. Then we applied the simulation method to review potential future results, as well as to provide additional insight into the structure and characteristics of each approach. We find that, over time, certain static approaches are essentially equivalent to dynamic strategies that reduce equity exposure through time. Further, we find that most …

International Diversification: A Copula Approach, Lorán Chollete, Victor De La Pena, Ching-Chih Lu

Lorán Chollete

No abstract provided.

Treasury Factor Fundamentals, Yogendra Sisodia

Yogendra Sisodia

Treasury Operations and Fundamental Factors

Incentive Effect Of Piece Rate Contracts: Evidence From Two Small Field Experiments, Lan Shi

Lan Shi

No abstract provided.

Adjustment Costs, Errors In Risk Weights, And Banks' Balance Sheets: The 1988 Basel Accord Revisited, Kevin T. Jacques, Elva Coadari, John Thornton

Kevin T Jacques

In the context of a profit-maximization model that recognizes both non-homogeneous adjustment costs and errors in risk weights, this paper examines the question of why different banks exhibited different responses to implementation of the 1988 Accord.

Procyclicality, Bank Lending, And The Macroeconomic Implications Of A Revised Basel Accord, Kevin T. Jacques

Kevin T Jacques

No abstract provided.

The Defense-Growth Relationship: An Economic Investigation Into Post-Soviet States, Bruce D. Mcdonald Iii, Robert J. Eger Iii

Bruce D. McDonald, III

An important question stemming from the collapse of the Soviet Union is how defense spending has influenced the economic performance of the 15 member states since their establishment as market economies. This study furthers the understanding of the relationship between defense spending and economic growth using data from the states of the former Soviet Union from 1992 to 2007. A nonlinear production function was used for direct effects, and models of investment and employment were employed for indirect effects. Contrary to expectations, the findings show that continued reliance on the defense sector in post-Soviet states has helped overall economic growth. …

Using Actual Betting Percentages To Analyze Sportsbook Behavior: The Canadian And Arena Football Leagues, Rodney Paul, Andrew P. Weinbach, Kristin K. Paul

Rodney J. Paul

Sportsbook behavior is tested for the Canadian and Arena Football Leagues using real sportsbook betting percentages from on-line sportsbooks. The balanced book hypothesis of the traditional sportsbook models does not appear to hold for these leagues, as favorites and overs attract more than 50 percent of the betting dollars. Although there is some slight evidence toward shading the line in these directions, there is also no overwhelming evidence supporting the Levitt (2004) hypothesis, as sportsbooks do not appear to be actively pricing to maximize profits. In general, the results seem more consistent with the sportsbook pricing as a forecast, content …

Trusts Versus Corporations: An Empirical Analysis Of Competing Organizational Forms, A. Joseph Warburton

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

This paper studies the effects of organizational form on managerial behavior and firm performance, from an empirical perspective. Managers of trusts are subject to stricter fiduciary responsibilities than managers of corporations. This paper examines the ramifications empirically, by exploiting data generated by a change in British regulations in the 1990s that allowed mutual funds to organize as either a trust or a corporation. I find evidence that trust law is effective in curtailing opportunistic behavior, as trust managers charge significantly lower fees than their observationally equivalent corporate counterparts. Trust managers also incur lower risk. However, evidence suggests that trust managers …

Financial Liberalization And Banking Crises: A Cross-Country Analysis, Apanard P. Angkinand, Wanvimol Sawangngoenyuang, Clas Wihlborg

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Several studies indicate that financial liberalization contributes to the likelihood of a financial crisis. We focus on banking crises and argue that they are most likely to occur after an intermediate degree of liberalization. Using a recently updated dataset for financial reforms in 48 countries between 1973 and 2005, we find an inverted U-shaped relationship between liberalization and the likelihood of crisis. We ask whether the relationship remains when institutional characteristics of countries and dynamic effects of liberalization are considered. The empirical results indicate that the relationship between liberalization and banking crises depends strongly on the strength of capital regulation …

An Experimental Analysis Of The Demand For Payday Loans, Bart J. Wilson, David W. Findlay, James W. Meehan Jr., Charissa P. Wellford, Karl Schurter

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

The payday loan industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the consumer financial services market in the United States. We design an environment similar to the one that payday loan customers face and then conduct a laboratory experiment to examine what effect, if any, the existence of payday loans has on individuals' abilities to manage and to survive financial setbacks. Our primary objective is to examine whether access to payday loans improves or worsens the likelihood of financial survival in our experiment. We also test the degree to which people's use of payday loans affects their ability to …

Deposit Insurance Coverage, Ownership, And Banks' Risk-Taking In Emerging Markets, Apanard P. Angkinand, Clas Wihlborg

Business Faculty Articles and Research

We ask how deposit insurance systems and ownership of banks affect the degree of market discipline on banks' risk-taking. Market discipline is determined by the extent of explicit deposit insurance, as well as by the credibility of non-insurance of groups of depositors and other creditors. Furthermore, market discipline depends on the ownership structure of banks and the responsiveness of bank managers to market incentives. An expected U-shaped relationship between explicit deposit insurance coverage and banks' risk-taking is influenced by country specific institutional factors, including bank ownership. We analyze specifically how government ownership, foreign ownership and shareholder rights affect the disciplinary …

Proliferation Of Tail Risks And Policy Responses In The Eu Financial Markets, Lucjan Orlowski

WCBT Faculty Publications

This study draws attention to the proliferation of tail risks in financial markets prior to and during the course of the recent global financial crisis. It examines the level of tail risks in selected equity, interbank lending and foreign exchange markets in selected EU Member States in relation to the United States. The extent of tail risks is assessed by applying general error distribution (GED) parameterization in GARCH volatility tests of the examined variables. The empirical tests prove that tail risks were pronounced across all of the examined European financial markets throughout the crisis. They were also significant prior to …

Crisis Opportunism: Bail Outs And E-Scads In The Gfc, Judy Johnston, Alexander Kouzmin, Kym Thorne, Stephen Kelly

Adjunct Professor Stephen J Kelly

As a response to the “junk-debt”- inspired, global, economic crisis, governments, with supra-national organizational approval, have appropriated billions of taxpayers’ dollars for bail-outs, have set-up special funds and under-written depositors’ savings in the desperate hope of alleviating the threat of rapid, economic decline and systemic destruction of value. Whether these governments have a democratic mandate for such unprecedented action is debatable. More importantly, though, is whether such decisions amount to good re-regulatory policy.

First, it is known that some of the bail-out money to large corporations has been squandered by oligarchic recipients and appropriated by them in their own interests. …

Globalization And Economic Integration: Winners And Losers In The Asia-Pacific

Ahmed Khalid

‘Noel Gaston and Ahmed M. Khalid’s volume offers fascinating insights on the development, causes, and consequences of globalization in the Asia-Pacific. The outstanding collection of articles combines theory with rigorous econometrics, making the book a must-read for every student of globalization. At a time where the global crisis gave new arguments to the critics of globalization, the questions raised in this book, and the answers given, are essential reading for academics and politicians alike.’ – Axel Dreher, University of Goettingen, Germany Given the importance of globalization in today’s world, this salutary and timely book explores how globalization is specifically shaping …

Was There A “Small-Bank” Anomaly In The Great Crisis Of 2007-09?, Paola Bongini, Giovanni Ferri, Punziana Lacitignola

Paola Bongini

Drawing on a large set of listed banks from Europe, the US and Japan we start noticing that smaller-sized banks suffered less than larger banks in conjunction with the unfolding of the Great Crisis of 2007-09. Was this a small-bank anomaly analogous to the classic small firm effect? We conjecture that what seems to be a small bank anomaly might, in fact, signal a generalized market reassessment of the banking business model and tested whether stock markets penalized less the banks that kept more rooted to the traditional “originate-to-hold” (OTH) model while forgoing the opportunities disclosed by the “originate-to-distribute” (OTD) …