Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Thinking Finance - The Comic Book, Dimitrios V. Siskos

Dimitrios V. Siskos

Thinking financially results in the best possible outcome and establishes a secure foundation for the future as an independent man. In contrast, thinking emotionally leads to short-sighted financial decisions and usually, deep regrets. However, thinking financially is not pleasant for the people around us. This comic book presents a guy, whose dream is to become an accountant. When he finally succeeds in this, he realizes that thinking financially may be effective for his boss but it is irritating for everyone else, even for his family.

Liquidity Policies And Financial Fragility, Danilo Lopomo Beteto Wegner

Danilo Lopomo Beteto Wegner

The Integrity Of Financial Analysts: Evidence From Asymmetric Responses To Earnings Surprises, Rui Lu, Wenxuan Hou, Henry Oppenheimer, Ting Zhang

Ting Zhang

This paper investigates the integrity of financial analysts by examining their recommendation responses to large quarterly earnings surprises. Although there is no significant difference in recommendation changes between affiliated and unaffiliated analysts in response to positive earnings surprises, affiliated analysts are more reluctant than unaffiliated analysts to downgrade stock recommendations in response to negative earnings surprises. The evidence implies that conflicts of interest undermine the integrity of financial analysts. We further examine the effects of reputation concern and the Global Research Analyst Settlement as informal and formal mechanisms, on restoring analysts’ integrity. The results show that the positive bias in …

An Analysis Of Risk-Taking Behavior For Public Defined Benefit Pension Plans, Nancy Mohan, Ting Zhang

Ting Zhang

This paper presents the first comprehensive study on the determinants of public pension fund investment risk and reports several new important findings. Unlike private pension plans, public funds undertake more risk if they are underfunded and have lower investment returns in the previous years, consistent with the risk transfer hypothesis. Furthermore, pension funds in states facing fiscal constraints allocate more assets to equity and have higher betas. There also appears to be a herding effect in that CalPERS equity allocation or beta is mimicked by other pension funds. Finally, our results suggest that government accounting standards strongly affect pension fund …

An Analysis Of Risk-Taking Behavior For Public Defined Benefit Pension Plans, Nancy Mohan, Ting Zhang

Nancy Mohan

This paper presents the first comprehensive study on the determinants of public pension fund investment risk and reports several new important findings. Unlike private pension plans, public funds undertake more risk if they are underfunded and have lower investment returns in the previous years, consistent with the risk transfer hypothesis. Furthermore, pension funds in states facing fiscal constraints allocate more assets to equity and have higher betas. There also appears to be a herding effect in that CalPERS equity allocation or beta is mimicked by other pension funds. Finally, our results suggest that government accounting standards strongly affect pension fund …

The Impact Of Institutional Arrangements On Educational Efficiency, Trevor Collier

Trevor Collier

Per-pupil expenditures on education in the United States have grown immensely in recent decades, yet student achievement has been stagnant. An abundance of research has sought to solve this enigma, much of it centered on the incentive structure facing administrators. Some recent papers use TIMSS data to analyze the relationship between institutional arrangements—that typically do not vary within a single country—and student achievement. Similarly, we utilize TIMSS 1999 to determine if there is an indirect relationship between institutional arrangements and student achievement, via a relationship with school efficiency. Our results show that the specified link between institutional arrangements and student …

Teacher Qualifications And Student Achievement: A Panel Data Of Analysis, Trevor Collier

Trevor Collier

Recent academic research suggests that teacher quality plays an important role in student achievement: however, empirical research on the efficacy of policies requiring teachers to obtain certain degrees is inconclusive, particularly in elementary education. This paper models a panel data production function with fixed effects using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) to asses the relationship between different undergraduate and graduate majors and elementary student test scores. Specifcally, we aim to discern if there is a difference in teacher efficacy within the different education related majors (e.g. early childhood education and elementary education) and between education and non-education related majors.

Tobin, James, Tony Caporale

Tony Caporale

James Tobin was born in Champaign, Illinois, in 1918. He received his bachelor's degree in 1939 and his master's degree in 1940, both from Harvard. Following naval service during the years 1942-6, he returned to his graduate studies and received his PhD from Harvard in 1947. In 1950, he joined the economics department at Yale University, and he has largely remained at Yale and has been identified with this institution throughout his career. He twice directed the Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, first from 1955 to 1961, and then from 1964 to 1965. He also served for two years, …

Loyalty Cards And The Problem Of Captcha.Pdf, David M. Cook

Dr. David M Cook

The Ghana National Economic Forum In May 2014, Another Implementation Curse?, George E. Ekeha

George E Ekeha

More than one year after the above consensus was developed and read to the whole world, which was subsequently followed by the full report, many are of the view that little efforts have been done to implement the consensus. In this article, I decided to choose just about five of the Senchi Consensus that in my opinion can change the country very much and place her on the international radar for reckoning when implemented with the seriousness that they deserve. It is my strongest belief that many Ghanaians and other development partners are aware of many issues raised in this …

Parity And Non-Parity Determinants Of Exchange Rates In Latin American Economies, Catherine S.F. Ho, Mohamed Ariff

Mohamed Ariff

This paper reports how non-parity fundamental factors together with parity factors are correlated with exchange rate movements. Seven Latin American countries were included in this study using a selection criterion that for a pair of countries to be included, the pair must have more than 50 per cent of trade with the group chosen. The econometric methods applied are appropriate to this topic and include pooled time series regression and seemingly unrelated regression. The findings show that there is support for short and long-run effects on exchange rates from inflation and interest rates. We entered non-parity factors suggested in recent …

Quantitative Evaluation On Indigent Criminal Defense Funding, Ralph E. Mckinney, Lawrence P. Shao

Ralph E. McKinney

This article takes a quantitative approach to build upon McKinney and Shao's (2008) qualitative contribution concerning resource a/location of indigent criminal defense programs. By compating public funds of multiple societies over time, we are able to add important knowledge surrounding property rights valuations using a new concept called GDP Indexed Purchasing Power Parity. The findings of this study show that GDP-PPP provides for better indigent criminal defense analysis than per capita figures.

Indigent Criminal Defense: Qualitative Review On Economic Value, Ralph Mckinney, Lawrence P. Shao

Ralph E. McKinney

This article reviews indigent criminal defense programs on an international level and generally concludes that societies want to protect legitimate society members', within the respective society's jurisdiction, fundamental property rights concerning criminal prosecution. While this conclusion was as the researchers expected, several unexpected and contrary observations were noted. Society wealth and a greater return on investments of public funds can dramatically shift a society's value of basic shared rights.

Measuring Risk In Business And Economics: Possiblity Of Loss Or Dispersion Of Outcomes, Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

No abstract provided.

Ex_Ante_Cba-Community_Drr_In_The_Caribbean.Pdf, Meenakshi Jerath, Juan Pablo Sarmiento

Juan Pablo Sarmiento

Theories And Practices Of Islamic Finance And Exchange Laws: Poverty Of Interest, Ahmed E. Souaiaia

Ahmed E SOUAIAIA

The Vehicle Quota System In Singapore: An Assessment, Winston T. H. Koh, David K. C. Lee

David LEE Kuo Chuen

This paper reviews the developments since the vehicle quota system was introduced in Singapore in May 1990. We discuss the bidding strategies for the certificates of entitlement (COE) under both the transferable and nontransferable auctions, as well as the equity of the present system and the desirability of transferable COEs. We argue that the COE auction should be made discriminatory and propose an alternative system of COE auction that we feel is both equitable and at the same time politically acceptable. We also survey developments in market competition in the car industry.

Share-Price-Changes-Volume Relation On The Singapore Equity Market, David K. C. Lee, Mohamed Ariff

David LEE Kuo Chuen

A critical review of the literature on security-price-changes-volume research suggests that the published studies in the United States and one each in Hong Kong and Japan have largely ignored the impacts on the results from autocorrelation, non-normality of distributions, heteroscedasticity and non-linear functional forms. Therefore, the reported findings are not robust. In testing for this relation from a small sample of continuously traded shares in the Singapore share market, we find that consistent results may not be obtained because of violations of basic test conditions. A task that remains is an application of alternative test models with data transformation using …

Housing Policies In Singapore: Evaluation Of Recent Proposals And Recommendations For Reform, Sock Yong Phang, David K. C. Lee, Alan Cheong, Kok Fai Phoon, Karol Wee

David LEE Kuo Chuen

The Singapore housing market is unusual in its high homeownership rate, the dominance of HDB housing, and the extensive intervention of the government in regulating housing supply and demand in both the HDB and private housing sectors. Recent rapid population increases in a low interest rate and high global liquidity environment has resulted in accelerated house prices increases in Singapore. Earlier this year, the government launched “Our Singapore Conversation” of which discussion on housing policies constitutes one major component. This “conversation” comes in the wake of several consecutive rounds of measures to stabilize housing prices using various instruments. This paper …

Managing The Risks In Financial Inclusion And Agency Banking, Emmanuel Moore Abolo Dr.

Dr. Emmanuel Moore Abolo

Ensuring access to appropriate financial products and services needed by vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income groups at an affordable cost in a fair and transparent manner by mainstream institutional poses risks that must be managed in an enterprise-wide form for greater impact.

Intangible Investments And The Pricing Of Corporate Sga Expenses, Rongbing Huang, Gim S. Seow, Joe S. Shangguan

Rongbing Huang

This study examined whether the market fully prices the reported Selling, General, and Administrative (SGA) expenses when this item includes an intangible investment component. For a sample of intangible investment-intensive firms, we showed that their SGA expenses benefit future operating performances. Evidence suggests some degree of market inefficiency in the pricing of SGA expenses and the intangible investment component. Furthermore, the financial analysts do not appear to appreciate fully the future benefits of the component in their earnings forecasts. Finally, the pertinent disclosures in firms’ annual reports are so inadequate as to attenuate the market mispricing, suggesting a significant room …

A History Of Financial Regulation In The Usa From The Beginning Until Today: 1789 To 2011, Gary Richardson

Gary Richardson

No abstract provided.

Earnings Response Coefficients Of Oecd Banks: Tests Extended To Include Bank Risk Factors, Mohamed Ariff, Cheng Fan Fah, Soh Wei Ni

Mohamed Ariff

We investigate two issues: Do share prices of banks in European markets respond to unexpected accounting earnings disclosures? Are share prices as well as unexpected earnings changes correlated with bank-relevant risk factors? Results reveal that bank share prices respond to unexpected earnings changes at the time of accounting reports in the same manner as the shares of the more widely-researched non-bank firms. Apart from finding significant earnings response coefficients in eight countries, we find that credit risk, price risk, exchange rate risk, and solvency risk are significantly correlated with share price changes. Third, three bank risk factors are significantly correlated …

Financial Liberalization, Market Structure And Credit Penetration, Felipe Balmaceda Assoc Prof., Ronald Fischer Full Professor, Felipe Ramirez

Felipe Balmaceda

This paper shows that the effects of financial liberalization on the credit market of a small and capital constrained economy depend on the market structure of domestic banks prior to liberalization. Specifically, under perfect competition in the domestic credit market prior to liberalization, liberalization leads to lower domestic interest rates, in turn leading to increased credit penetration. However, when the initial market structure is one of imperfect competition, liberalization can lead to the exclusion of less wealthy entrepreneurs from the credit market. This provides a rationale for the mixed empirical evidence concerning the effects of liberalization on access to credit …

The Impact Of Reversing Regulatory Arbitrage On Loan Originations: Evidence From Bank Holding Companies, Lan Shi, David H. Downs

Lan Shi

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Affect Heuristic, Fear And Anger On Decision Making Of Individual Investor: A Conceptual Study, Ehsan Ul Hassan, Fahad Shahzeb, Maryum Shaheen, Qamar Abbas, Zahid Hameed, Ahmed Imran Hunjra

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

Financial theories support the efficient market hypothesis, which assumes that prices are fair in the market and investors behave rationally while taking any investment decision. Individual Investors of the stock market are therefore thought to take rational decisions while making judgments and investment decisions. However, a lot of studies on behavioral finance have criticized the phenomenon of market efficiency and investor’s rationality. The empirical evidences of these studies conclude the involvement of behavioral biases and psychological impacts on investor’s judgments and decision making. Keeping this in mind the present study has focused on studying the impact of affect heuristic, fear …

Transaction Costs Analysis Of Low-Carbon Technologies, Luis Mundaca T., Mathilde Mansoz, Lena Neij, Govinda R. Timilsina

Luis Mundaca

Transaction costs (TCs) must be taken into account when assessing the performance of policy instruments that create markets for the diffusion and commercialization of low-carbon technologies (LCTs). However, there are no comprehensive studies on the development and application of transaction cost analysis to LCTs. In this meta-analysis, a wide-ranging evaluation of TCs associated with energy efficiency, renewable energy, and carbon market technologies is provided. There is a plethora of different definitions of, and measurement techniques to estimate, TCs. There is wide variation in the quantitative estimates, which can be attributed to factors such as the definition used, data collection, quantification …

Impact Of Psychological Factors On Investment Decision Making Mediating By Risk Perception: A Conceptual Study, Lubna Riaz, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Rauf I. Azam

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

Every individual is different from others due to various factors which include demographic factors, age, race and sex, education level, social and economic background; same is the situation with the investors. The most critical challenge faced by them is the investment decision; they act in a rational manner and usually follow their instincts and emotional biases while making investment decisions. The investigation of previous studies reveals the importance of various psychological factors which affect their investment decision. Keeping this in view, a study model has been developed to describe the impact of risk propensity, asymmetric information and problem framing on …

Financial Forecasts For The Next Decade, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Harold Hovey pointed out that the outlook for state funding of public higher education institutions during the first decade of the 21st century might not be as rosy as it has been during the last five years. The pictures I have painted of the financial futures for American public and private higher education echo his concerns. If sustained economic growth continues, academic institutions' financial prospects will be somewhat brighter. However, it is clear that the well-being of colleges and universities nationwide depends upon their diversifying their sources of revenues. Through their efforts to do so, the publics will end …

A Strategy For Rural Financial Market Reform: Applying The Financial Systems Approach In Ghana, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Abor Yeboah

Harlan M. Smith

We construct, using methods advocated in one strand of the Financial Systems Approach literature, a reform-and-renewal program for one of Ghana’s struggling Rural Banks--the Kaaseman Rural Bank. Questionnaire results, local informal financial practices, recent institutional innovations in Ghanaian finance, the experiences of successful “Nontraditional” rural finance institutions in developing countries, and the operating structure of the Rural Bank program indicate that this bank can implement a group-lending scheme that will reduce significantly its transaction costs and those of its customers. We thus demonstrate how the Financial Systems Approach can be employed to promote sustainable rural financial intermediation in a specific …