Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Payday Loans In The Mountain West, 2022, Issac Hernandez-Alcaraz, Vanessa M. Booth, Katie M. Gilbertson, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet examines data on payday loans, produced by the Pew Charitable Trusts. We examine payday lending costs, most common loan type, and the average annual percentage rate in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah), and include specific analysis on differences between the states by regulatory category.

The Livingston Survey 2022, S. Anderson, B. Bovino, M. Brown, Thomas Lam, Et Al

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

The 16 participants in the December Livingston Survey weakened their forecasts for real GDP growth, compared with their projections in the June 2022 survey. The forecasters, who are surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia twice a year, expect 2.0 percent annualized growth in real GDP during the second half of 2022. They project 0.4 percent annualized growth over the first half of 2023. The forecasters predict that real GDP will continue to decline and reach -1.0 percent annualized growth in the second half of 2023.

Exploring Mortgage Loan Opportunities For Native 360, Donald Nam, Brooks Douglass, Michael Buehre Stackpole, Broderick Diez

Honors Theses

Native 360 is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that aims to provide affordable capital, credit, and assistance to develop strong and self-sufficient Native Americans. Native 360 currently accomplishes this by specializing in providing personal and business loans. However, Native 360 would like to expand into home mortgages as an additional offering. Native 360 has reached out to us to have us develop a strategy to raise capital for their ambitious new business line in an attempt to strengthen the Native American community through home ownership.

Understanding Sentiment Through Context, Richard M.Crowley, M.H. Franco Wong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine whether empirical results using text-based sentiment of U.S. annual reports depend on the underlying context, within documents, from which sentiment is measured. We construct a clause-level measure of context, showing that sentiment is driven by many different contexts and that positive and negative sentiment are driven by different contexts. We then construct context-level sentiment measures and examine whether sentiment works as expected at the context-level across four prediction problems. Our results demonstrate that document-level sentiment exhibits significant noise in prediction and suggest that document-level aggregation of sentiment leads to missed empirical nuances. The contexts driving sentiment results vary …

The Financials Of Water: The Case Of Maynilad And Manila Water, Junette A. Perez, Janrick Razon

Center for Business Research and Development

What is water? It is defined in the English Oxford Living Dictionaries as a colorless, transparent, odorless liquid that forms the seas, lakes, rivers, and rain and is the basis of the fluids of living organisms. The paper uses financial ratio analysis to examine the financial performance of the two dominant water and wastewater companies in Metro Manila. It attempts to appreciate how water and wastewater companies perform financially as they confront the complexities of operating an essential utility, water, and wastewater.

Economic Freedom And Labor Market Outcomes Of Immigrants: Evidence From The Dominican Republic And Haiti, Sarah Carvalho, Kathleen Pinkston, Logan Tucker, Corey Denzel

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

When two people receive the same gift and person A initially had significantly less than person B, wouldn’t person A be able to utilize the gift more? Why then do immigrants from Haiti fare so poorly compared to those from the Dominican Republic when exposed to the economic freedom levels of the United States? Using data from the last 30 years, we will be using an OLS model to analyze the impact of economic freedom on the labor market outcomes of immigrants from Haiti compared to those from the Dominican Republic. In this OLS model, we will take into account …

Factors Affecting The Growth Of Small Privately-Owned Financial Planning Businesses, Darren A. Pawski, Robert J. Powell, Anna Golab

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Over the past 10 years, there have been many financial scandals in the financial advice industry, which has caused substantial losses for investors. Large wealth institutions controlled by major Australian banks have significantly contributed to investor losses by promoting their products which were not always in the best interests of clients. The aim of this study was to explore the factors affecting the current and future growth of small privately-owned financial planning businesses as a competitive marketplace provides better consumer outcomes. The study undertook a qualitative approach using an exploratory research design which involved the recruitment of 51 privately-owned financial …

Learning From Manipulable Signals, Mehmet Ekmekci, Leandrro Gorno, Lucas Maestri, Jian Sun, Dong Wei

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study a dynamic stopping game between a principal and an agent. The agent is privately informed about his type. The principal learns about the agent’s type from a noisy performance measure, which can be manipulated by the agent via a costly and hidden action. We fully characterize the unique Markov equilibrium of this game. We find that terminations/ market crashes are often preceded by a spike in (expected) performance. Our model also predicts that, due to endogenous signal manipulation, too much transparency can inhibit learning. As the players get arbitrarily patient, the principal elicits no useful information from the …

Innovation In Futures Markets: Event Contracts, Speculation, And Hedging, Fabio Mattos

Cornhusker Economics

The CME Group has recently launched a new type of contract whose payoffs are based on specific events. These contracts are called event contracts but are also known as prediction contracts or information contracts. They are short-term contracts that expire at the end of each trading day. Traders can take positions in these contracts as they predict whether the price of a given asset will finish the trading day above or below a set value.

Discusses: How are they traded? Main characteristics of event contracts. Event contracts offered by CME group and event examples on October 21, 2022. Why were …

Responsible Hedge Funds, Hao Liang, Lin Sun, Song Wee Melvyn Teo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Hedge funds that endorse the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) underperform other hedge funds after adjusting for risk but attract greater investor flows, accumulate more assets, and harvest greater fee revenues. Consistent with an agency explanation, the underperformance is driven by PRI signatories with low environmental, social, and governance (ESG) exposures and is greater for hedge funds with poor incentive alignment. To address endogeneity, we exploit regulatory reforms that enhance stewardship and show that the ESG exposure and relative performance of signatory funds improve post reforms. Our findings suggest that some hedge funds endorse responsible investment to pander …

Towards Automated Safety Vetting Of Smart Contracts In Decentralized Applications, Yue Duan, Xin Zhao, Yu Pan, Shucheng Li, Minghao Li, Fengyuan Xu, Mu Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We propose VetSC, a novel UI-driven, program analysis guided model checking technique that can automatically extract contract semantics in DApps so as to enable targeted safety vetting. To facilitate model checking, we extract business model graphs from contract code that capture its intrinsic business and safety logic. To automatically determine what safety specifications to check, we retrieve textual semantics from DApp user interfaces. To exclude untrusted UI text, we also validate the UI-logic consistency and detect any discrepancies. We have implemented VetSC and applied it to 34 real-world DApps. Experiments have demonstrated that VetSC can accurately interpret smart contract code, …

Historical Corn Price Evolution Implications For Pre-Harvest Hedging, Cory Walters, Richard K. Preston

Cornhusker Economics

Commodity markets evolve through information provided by participating buyers and sellers and throughout this process the conditions in which commodity markets work are revealed. Producer pre-harvest commodity marketing can be further developed by incorporating information on how commodity markets work, leading to better farm financial performance.

We investigate how commodity markets have historically evolved from spring to fall. While changes in future prices appear random in any given year, observing average daily prices over 32 years could uncover a seasonal tendency. In the past 32 years, the average daily price tends to be higher in the spring than the fall, …

On The Market For "Lemons": When Low Quality Does Not Drive High Quality Out Of The Market, Konstantinos Giannakas, Murray E. Fulton

Cornhusker Economics

In a research article published in Nature's Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s4l 599-020-00658-w) we identify the conditions under which the introduction of a low -quality product does not drive its high-quality counterpart out of the market but, instead, ends-up coexisting with it. Using a theoretical framework of heterogeneous consumers and producers in the context of a market for quality- ( or vertically-) differentiated products supplied by producers differing in their production efficiency, we show that the equilibrium quality configuration in a market depends on both the unobservability of product quality by consumers and the relative costs …

Covid-19 Impact On Church Cash Inflows In Ghana As Moderated By Location Profile, Francis Osei-Kuffour, Williams Kwasi Peprah, Dickson Marfo Sarfo, Bright Osei Yeboah

Faculty Publications

The corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic brought both negative and positive impacts on all sectors of world economies since its inception in the early 2020s. Profit and not-for-profit institutions have had their levels of effects as a result of the world-wide crises. Lockdown measures imposed by governments around the world to curb the spread of the virus had various repercussions on various activities, including churches. Effects of the pandemic on businesses, education, agriculture and tourism, among others, have received massive highlights in literature. Given this phenomenon, this study sought to ascertain the impact of COVID-19 on church cash inflows. The study …

Don't Let The Past Sink Your Future, Timothy L. Meyer

Cornhusker Economics

Decision scientists have many algorithms for making decisions. These algorithms can be qualitative and subjective, such as following a 7-step process, to highly quantitative procedures like minimax regret, or linear programming. These techniques are very different from each other, but in one way they are very similar; they never, ever suggest the manager become emotional and use past decisions to guide the future.

Past decisions and events should guide decision-making. They help managers assign probabilities as well assessing performance. Viewing these events and situations as permanent paths is where sunk costs become problematic.

Includes discussions of four scenarios.

The Sun Is Rising In The East: Dual-Class Shares And The Competitive Landscape Of Technological Industries In Asia, Hao Liang, Tran Bao Phuong Nguyen, Wei Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

There has recently been a relaxation of listing regulations to accommodate and attract firms going public with dual-class shares (DCS), notably in Asia. We examine the value implications of DCS adoption by employing an event study around a regulatory change allowing DCS listings in Hong Kong. We find negative market reactions around these regulatory discussions for firms already listed in Hong Kong, especially for firms in technology (tech) sectors. However, the market reaction turned positive for tech firms during Hong Kong’s first DCS listing. We identify two distinct channels that influenced shareholders’ perspectives on DCS: the competition channel, which dominated …

The Alphabet Soup In Reporting And Measuring Esg, Hao Liang, Kam Chee Chan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Harmonising frameworks with the Impact-Weighted Accounts Framework.

Rural Microfinance And Business Ownership Outcomes A Case Of Tanzania Educational And Micro Business Opportunity (Tembo) Loan And Non-Loan Recipients In Longido District, Tanzania, Owen Conlin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The study takes place in a rural area of Tanzania with gender barriers that are extremely difficult to overcome on a cultural level. This research examines outcomes for women in Longido District, Tanzania along the lines of MFI participation, education levels, financial variables, and empowerment variables. This study intends to elaborate this theory by examining the role that education plays in the success of Microfinance Institutions (MFI’s). It was found that MFI participation is correlated with increased financial and overall independence. Higher levels of education are found to be correlated with increased income, financial independence, personal empowerment, and overall independence. …

Are California Venture Capitalists The Best Venture Capitalists?, Tyler Hull, Luna Y. Goldblatt

Management Faculty Publications

We test if California VCs significantly outperform VCs from other US states. We additionally test in which instances California VCs outperform the other VC concentrated states of Massachusetts and New York. We find that VCs from California, Massachusetts, and New York have significantly greater probabilities of successfully exiting their investments than VCs from other states. Additionally, we show that California VCs are even more adept than VCs from Massachusetts and New York at 1. Early-stage investments, 2. Helping their entrepreneurial firms receive future rounds of financing, and 3. Helping their backed entrepreneurial firms receive higher IPO valuations and achieve superior …

The Ursinus College Investment Management Company Newsletter, Fall 2022, Scott Deacle, Maureen Cumpstone, Jess Gutekunst, Michael Magargee

Investment Management Company Newsletter

Inside this issue:

At a Glance

Letter from Jessica Gutekunst '23

Letter from Michael Magargee '23

Investment Team Strategies and Updates

UCIMCO Investment Performance and Analysis

Endowment Outlook

Stock Selection Picks

Women's Fund Picks

Our Teams

Thank You!

How to Contribute

Investment Policy Statement UCIMCO Endowment

Investment Policy Statement UCIMCO Stock Selection

Riding Off Into The Sunset: Dual-Class Structure In The Age Of Unicorns Going Public, Hao Liang, Junho Park, Wei Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The increasing adoption of dual-class shares (DCS)—an ownership structure that gives corporate insiders greater voting power than other shareholders—among newly listed companies has raisedsignificant governance concerns. We investigate the decision to adopt the DCS structure and itsvalue implications in the recent U.S. IPOs. Using founder cultural traits and Silicon Valley lawfirms as instrumental variables, we find significant post-IPO outperformance by firms adopting DCSwith a sunset clause, especially incapacity-based sunset which stipulates that the DCS will ceaseafter founders’ death, incapacitation or departure, compared to non-DCS firms and DCS firms without sunsets. This outperformance is more pronounced for high-tech firms, after Google’s …

Bringing Excitement To Empirical Business Ethics Research: Thoughts On The Future Of Business Ethics, Mayowa T. Babalola, Matthijs Bal, Charles H. Cho, Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo, Omrane Guedhami, Hao Liang, Greg Shailer, Suzanne Van Gils

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

To commemorate 40 years since the founding of the Journal of Business Ethics, the editors-in-chief of the journal have invited the editors to provide commentaries on the future of business ethics. This essay comprises a selection of commentaries aimed at creating dialog around the theme Bringing Excitement to Empirical Business Ethics Research (inspired by the title of the commentary by Babalola and van Gils). These editors, considering the diversity of empirical approaches in business ethics, envisage a future in which quantitative business ethics research is more bold and innovative, as well as reflexive about its techniques, and dialog between quantitative …

Green Banking Practices: The Impact Of Internet Banking On Bank Profitability In Egypt, Rania Pasha, Bassel Elbages

Business Administration

This is the first study to use a quantitative approach in examining the impact of internet banking implementation as a green banking practice on bank profitability in Egypt. Moreover, it is the first global study to differentiate the impact between basic and advanced transactional internet banking on bank profitability. A total of 20 banks operating in Egypt were sampled over two time periods: 2009–2018 and 2014–2018. Random effects generalized least squares (GLS) regression analysis and nonparametric analysis were used. Findings indicate that advanced transactional internet banking, as a green banking practice that contributes to the Egyptian sustainable development strategy (SDS), …

Responding To Financial Stress For Agricultural Producers And Couples, Jacob D. Gossner, Elizabeth B. Fauth, Tasha Howard

All Current Publications

Finances are a necessary component of running an agricultural production and with an uncertain economy, drought conditions, and rising costs, financial stress is increasingly common. Although financial stress is linked with poor individual and relationship outcomes, research suggests that there are effective ways to manage financial stress so that it does not reduce personal or relationship well-being. We review the body's response to stressors and how to respond rather than react to stress. We present specific strategies couples can use to navigate financial stress together. We include ideas for practical application for individuals seeking to improve the way they manage …

Disagreements And Proper Respect In Farm/Ranch Succession, Allan Vyhnalek

Cornhusker Economics

Adapted from "Does Disrespect Have a Place in Your Ag Legacy?" Volume 6, Issue 1, February 2021, Ag Legacy, by Caleb Carter, consultant to the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Briefly covers disagreements and proper respect in farm/ranch succession.

Insider Trading Restrictions And Real Earnings Management: International Evidence, Jiwei Wang, Yuanto Kusnadi, Jiwei Wang, Yujie Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the implications of insider trading restrictions on firms’ real activities earnings management in an international setting. Using a sample of 28 countries over the period from 1992 to 2007, we find evidence that is supportive of the substitution hypothesis, in that managers have incentives to substitute accruals earnings management for real activities earnings management. This effect is found to be more pronounced for firms in countries with more restrictive insider trading regulation. Our result is robust to alternative measures of real activities earnings man- agement and insider trading restrictions, alternative sub-samples, alternative regression specifi- cations, and controlling for …

Uncovering The Value Of Blockchain Applications In The World Of Finance, Qiang Cheng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This article discusses the benefits of using blockchain in the context of asset-backed security (ABS) issuance: reducing information asymmetry between issuers and investors, reducing yield spread of ABS, disciplining credit rating agencies, increasing the quality of underlying assets, and reducing issuers’ risk exposure. Such benefits should apply to other blockchain applications in the world of finance.

Secure Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet Supporting Stealth Address, Xin Yin, Zhen Liu, Guomin Yang, Guoxing Chen, Haojin Zhu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Over the past decade, cryptocurrency has been undergoing a rapid development. Digital wallet, as the tool to store and manage the cryptographic keys, is the primary entrance for the public to access cryptocurrency assets. Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet (HDW), proposed in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 32 (BIP32), has attracted much attention and been widely used in the community, due to its virtues such as easy backup/recovery, convenient cold-address management, and supporting trust-less audits and applications in hierarchical organizations. While HDW allows the wallet owner to generate and manage his keys conveniently, Stealth Address (SA) allows a payer to generate fresh address (i.e., …

Corporate Actions And The Manipulation Of Retail Investors In China: An Analysis Of Stock Splits, Sheridan Titman, Chi Shen Wei, Bin Zhao

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We identify a group of “suspicious” firms that use stock splits, perhaps along with other activities, to artificially inflate their share prices. Following the initiation of suspicious splits, share prices temporarily increase, and subsequently decline below their presplit levels. Using account level data from the Shanghai Stock Exchange, we find that small retail investors acquire shares in firms initiating suspicious splits, while more sophisticated investors accumulate positions before suspicious split announcements and sell in the postsplit period. We also find that insiders sell large blocks of shares and obtain loans using company stock as collateral around the initiation of suspicious …

Fractile Graphical Analysis In Finance: A New Perspective With Applications, Anil K. Bera, Aurobindo Ghosh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Fractile Graphical Analysis (FGA) was proposed by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in 1961 as a method for comparing two distributions at two different points (of time or space) controlling for the rank of a covariate through fractile groups. We use bootstrap techniques to formalize the heuristic method used by Mahalanobis for approximating the standard error of the dependent variable using fractile graphs from two independently selected “interpenetrating network of subsamples.” We highlight the potential and revisit this underutilized technique of FGA with a historical perspective. We explore a new non-parametric regression method called Fractile Regression where we condition on the ranks …