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Finance

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2008

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Articles 1 - 29 of 29

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Maximum Likelihood And Gaussian Estimation Of Continuous Time Models In Finance, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu Dec 2008

Maximum Likelihood And Gaussian Estimation Of Continuous Time Models In Finance, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper overviews maximum likelihood and Gaussian methods of estimating continuous time models used in finance. Since the exact likelihood can be constructed only in special cases, much attention has been devoted to the development of methods designed to approximate the likelihood. These approaches range from crude Euler-type approximations and higher order stochastic Taylor series expansions to more complex polynomial-based expansions and infill approximations to the likelihood based on a continuous time data record. The methods are discussed, their properties are outlined and their relative finite sample performance compared in a simulation experiment with the nonlinear CIR diffusion model, which …

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The Remittance Environment In Nigeria, A. Englama Nov 2008

The Remittance Environment In Nigeria, A. Englama

CBN Occasional Papers

This preliminary study is on the remittance environment in Nigeria which became compelling because of low availability of information and empirical research on the subject. The need to obtain evidence-based information to drive policy formulation on remittances inflow which grew from US$1.4 billion in 2002 to US$17.9 billion in 2007 and tap its potentials to promote economic growth in Nigeria were the rationale for the study. An understanding of the drivers, inhibitors, characteristics, cost of transaction and channels of the flows would promote policy formulation to improve the remittance environment. The objectives of the survey were to examine current trend …

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Future Fiscal And Budgetary Shocks, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps Nov 2008

Future Fiscal And Budgetary Shocks, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the effects of future tax and budgetary shocks in a non-monetary and possibly non-Ricardian economy. An (unanticipated) temporary labor tax cut to be effective on a given future date—a delayed “debt bomb”—causes at once a drop in the (unit) value placed on the firms' business asset, the customer, with the result that share prices, the hourly wage, and employment drop in tandem. This paradox of reduced activity through announcement of future “stimulus” does not hinge on an upward jump of long interest rates. A future tax-rate cut lacking a “sunset” provision has the same negative effects.

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A Sovereign Wealth Turn, Anna Gelpern Sep 2008

A Sovereign Wealth Turn, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

On September 2, 2008, a group of leading sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) agreed on generally accepted principles and practices. The process that created the so-called Santiago Principles is important in its own right, as a milestone on the way to what might become international financial architecture. Since SWFs rose to prominence two years ago, they have been trapped in sterile domestic arguments between national security and open investment. These have obscured SWFs' significance and the governance challenge they present. The challenge reflects the power shifts and culture clashes of financial integration, which, thanks to capital flow reversals, no longer looks …

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Financial Frictions And International Trade, Ruanjai Suwantaradon Aug 2008

Financial Frictions And International Trade, Ruanjai Suwantaradon

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the effects of financial market imperfections on a firm’s operating and exporting decisions. I introduce financial frictions into a trade model with heterogeneous firms along the line of Melitz (2003). With the presence of financial constraints, even among a group of firms with the same productivity level, firms that are more financially constrained operate on a less efficient scale, and as a result, may no longer find operating and/or exporting profitable. In addition, financial frictions may create a distortion compared to the Melitz (2003) world since operation and export participation may be undertaken by those with better …

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Economic Reforms, Fdi, And Economic Growth In India Sector Level Analysis, Chandana Chakraborty, Peter Nunnenkamp Jul 2008

Economic Reforms, Fdi, And Economic Growth In India Sector Level Analysis, Chandana Chakraborty, Peter Nunnenkamp

Department of Economics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Booming foreign direct investment (FDI) in post-reform India is widely believed to promote economic growth. We assess this proposition by subjecting industry-specific FDI and output data to Granger causality tests within a panel cointegration framework. It turns out that the growth effects of FDI vary widely across sectors. FDI stocks and output are mutually reinforcing in the manufacturing sector, whereas any causal relationship is absent in the primary sector. Most strikingly, we find only transitory effects of FDI on output in the services sector. However, FDI in the services sector appears to have promoted growth in the manufacturing sector through …

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Earnings Asymmetric Timeliness And Shareholder Distributions, Richard M. Frankel, Yan Sun, Rong Wang Jul 2008

Earnings Asymmetric Timeliness And Shareholder Distributions, Richard M. Frankel, Yan Sun, Rong Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study whether more asymmetrically timely earnings constrain payouts to shareholders in the presence of bad news. Our goal is to provide evidence on the ex post contracting benefits of accounting conservatism. We distinguish between cash flow asymmetric timeliness and accrual asymmetric timeliness to examine how each relates to asymmetric sensitivity of shareholder payouts. We find that only the asymmetric timeliness of cash flows is significantly related to the asymmetric sensitivity of shareholder payouts. Other measures of conservatism (earnings skewness and accumulated nonoperating accruals) are also not significantly related to the sensitivity of shareholder payouts given bad news. These results …

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Club Deals In Leveraged Buyouts, Micah S. Officer, Oguzhan Ozbas, Berk A. Sensoy Jun 2008

Club Deals In Leveraged Buyouts, Micah S. Officer, Oguzhan Ozbas, Berk A. Sensoy

Finance Faculty Works

We analyze the pricing and characteristics of club deal leveraged buyouts (LBOs)—those in which two or more private equity partnerships jointly conduct an LBO. Using a comprehensive sample of completed LBOs of U.S. publicly traded targets conducted by prominent private equity firms, we find that target shareholders receive approximately 10% less of pre-bid firm equity value, or roughly 40% lower premiums, in club deals compared to sole-sponsored LBOs. This result is concentrated before 2006 and in target firms with low institutional ownership. These results are robust to controls for target and deal characteristics, including size, Q, measures of risk, and …

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Time-Varying Incentives In The Mutual Fund Industry, Jacques Olivier, Anthony S. Tay Jun 2008

Time-Varying Incentives In The Mutual Fund Industry, Jacques Olivier, Anthony S. Tay

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper re-examines the incentives of mutual fund managers arising from investor flows. We provide evidence that the convexity of the flow-performance relationship varies with economic activity. We show that the effect is economically large and is not driven by abnormal years. We test two possible channels through which this pattern may arise. We investigate implications of the timevarying convexity for the incentives of managers to alter strategically the risk of their portfolios. We provide evidence that poor mid-year performers increase the risk of the portfolio only when economic activity is strong. Finally, we briefly discuss some methodological implications.

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Credit Elasticities In Less-Developed Economies: Implications For Microfinance, Dean S. Karlan, Jonathan Zinman Jun 2008

Credit Elasticities In Less-Developed Economies: Implications For Microfinance, Dean S. Karlan, Jonathan Zinman

Dartmouth Scholarship

Policymakers often prescribe that microfinance institutions increase interest rates to eliminate their reliance on subsidies. This strategy makes sense if the poor are rate insensitive: then microlenders increase profitability (or achieve sustainability) without reducing the poor's access to credit. We test the assumption of price inelastic demand using randomized trials conducted by a consumer lender in South Africa. The demand curves are downward sloping, and steeper for price increases relative to the lender's standard rates. We also find that loan size is far more responsive to changes in loan maturity than to changes in interest rates, which is consistent with …

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Planning And Financial Literacy: How Do Women Fare?, Annamaria Lusardi, Olivia S. Mitchell May 2008

Planning And Financial Literacy: How Do Women Fare?, Annamaria Lusardi, Olivia S. Mitchell

Dartmouth Scholarship

Many older US households have done little or no planning for retirement, and there is a substantial population that seems to undersave for retirement. Of particular concern is the relative position of older women, who are more vulnerable to old-age poverty due to their longer longevity. This paper uses data from a special module we devised on planning and financial literacy in the 2004 Health and Retirement Study. It shows that women display much lower levels of financial literacy than the older population as a whole. In addition, women who are less financially literate are also less likely to plan …

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Expanding Philanthropy’S Reach, Michael E. Swack Apr 2008

Expanding Philanthropy’S Reach, Michael E. Swack

Economics

When New York’s F.B. Heron Foundation, a private, grant-making institution, was created, it had a mandate to invest assets and donate 5 percent of returns annually to help low-income people and communities to help themselves.1 The year was 1992, the cusp of one of the greatest economic booms in U.S. history. But as Heron’s asset base swelled, 5 percent for community work began to look insufficient to help the many Americans who were missing out on the boom. In a 1996 meeting, directors realized they were spending too much time reviewing a particular investment manager’s performance and too little time …

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Kentucky's Debt Relief Attempt, Stephen E. Lile Apr 2008

Kentucky's Debt Relief Attempt, Stephen E. Lile

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Asymmetric Information And Conglomerate Discount: Evidence From Spinoffs, Charlie Charoenwong, Kuan Yong David Ding, Jing Pan Mar 2008

Asymmetric Information And Conglomerate Discount: Evidence From Spinoffs, Charlie Charoenwong, Kuan Yong David Ding, Jing Pan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The existing literature argues that diversified firms may be undervalued due to the information asymmetry between a firm's management and the market. Splitting the firm's divisions into multiple business components is thought to facilitate the market valuation of each component more accurately. We investigate the information hypothesis from corporate spinoffs from 1981 through 2004. We use the post-spinoff data to reconstruct the diversified firm, assess the improvement in value at the combined firm level, and relate the value improvement to the change in the level of information asymmetry. We find that, prior to the spinoff, the sample firms have significantly …

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Financial Frictions, Capital Reallocation, And Aggregate Fluctuations, Jürgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang Mar 2008

Financial Frictions, Capital Reallocation, And Aggregate Fluctuations, Jürgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We address an important business cycle fact, i.e., the amplified and hump-shaped responses of output to productivity shocks, in a dynamic general equilibrium model with financial frictions. Models with financial frictions in the current literature have either the amplification mechanism or the propagation mechanism. Our model shows that the dynamic interaction of borrowing constraints, endogenous capital accumulation, and capital reallocation among agents with different productivity constitutes a mechanism through which the effects of productivity shock on aggregate output are amplified and propagated, more in line with the empirical evidence than other related models in the literature.

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Why Brazil Has Not Grown: A Comparative Analysis Of Brazilian, Indian, And Chinese Economic Management, Fernando Ferrari, Anthony Petros Spanakos Mar 2008

Why Brazil Has Not Grown: A Comparative Analysis Of Brazilian, Indian, And Chinese Economic Management, Fernando Ferrari, Anthony Petros Spanakos

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper does not aim to dispute that Brazil would benefit from reforms in any or all of these areas. Rather, the paper offers a skeptical perspective on reform menus and proposes an alternative explanation for the faster growth of Brazil’s peers India and China2. The paper begins by introducing (section 1) the idea of the BRICs countries, to establish the basis for comparisons of most similar cases. It then surveys the results of a generation of Washington Consensus era growth (section 2). Although there is a considerable amount of divergence over what causes growth, it seems that something approaching …

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East Asia And Global Imbalances: Saving, Investment, And Financial Development, Hiro Ito, Menzie David Chinn Feb 2008

East Asia And Global Imbalances: Saving, Investment, And Financial Development, Hiro Ito, Menzie David Chinn

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We investigate the role of budget balances, financial development and openness, in the evolution of global imbalances. Financial development – or the lack thereof – has received considerable attention as a possible contributing factor to the development of persistent and expanding current account imbalances. Several observers have argued that the depth and sophistication of US capital markets have caused capital to flow from relatively underdeveloped East Asian financial markets. In this paper, we extend our previous work by examining the effect of different types and aspects of financial development. Our cross-country analysis, encompassing a sample of 19 industrialized countries and …

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Utopia Reconsidered: The Modern Firm As Institutional Ideal, John Dobson Jan 2008

Utopia Reconsidered: The Modern Firm As Institutional Ideal, John Dobson

Finance

This paper challenges Alasdair MacIntyre's assertion that the modern firm -such as Google, Unilever, or Microsoft -is inimical to human flourishing within an Aristotelian framework. The paper begins by questioning MacIntyre's rendering of utopian communities. It then addresses four specific criticisms of the modern firm to be found throughout MacIntyre's oeuvre, namely compartmentalisation, myopia, inequality, and loss of community. Arguments are made to the effect that these criticisms do not vitiate the institutional role of the modern firm in an Aristotelian context. The paper concludes with an invocation of the modern firm as institutional ideal within an evolving utopian vision …

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Introducing Ethics Into The Finance Curriculum: A Simple Three Level Guide, John Dobson Jan 2008

Introducing Ethics Into The Finance Curriculum: A Simple Three Level Guide, John Dobson

Finance

Ethics has arrived in the business school curriculum. But what about the curriculum of finance? Can ethics be integrated in any meaningful way into the theory and pedagogy of finance? Given the ever-broader array of topics in finance, should ethics be included at the inevitable expense of something else? Are finance instructors qualified to teach ethics any more than ethicists are qualified to teach finance? In short, are finance educators doing students a service or disservice by devoting class time to ethics? These are the questions addressed here. A menu of three different levels of integration is supplied;each level requiring …

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The Economic Impact Of The 50-Year Career Of Frank Broyles At The University Of Arkansas, Jeffery T. Collins Jan 2008

The Economic Impact Of The 50-Year Career Of Frank Broyles At The University Of Arkansas, Jeffery T. Collins

Publications and Presentations

Frank Broyles retired from the University of Arkansas on December 31, 2007, after a career in the athletic department of the school that lasted 50 years. First as coach and later as men’s athletic director, Frank Broyles had a profound impact on the state of Arkansas. His leadership skills led to tremendous unquantifiable benefits like personal mentorship of players and staff, notoriety, and philanthropy. His five decade long tenure at the University of Arkansas also led to demonstrable economic impact. The purpose of this study is to quantify and celebrate the economic benefits that have accrued to Arkansas because of …

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Reclaiming Egalitarianism In The Political Theory Of Campaign Finance Reform, Frank Pasquale Jan 2008

Reclaiming Egalitarianism In The Political Theory Of Campaign Finance Reform, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

Recent advocacy for campaign finance reform has been based on an ideal of the democratic process which is unrealistic and unhelpful. Scholars should instead return to its egalitarian roots. This article examines how deliberative democratic theory became the main justification for campaign finance reform. It exposes the shortcomings of this deliberativist detour and instead models campaign spending as an effort to commodify issue-salience. Given this dominant function of money in politics, a more effective paradigm for reform is equalizing influence. Advocates of campaign regulation should return to the original principles of reformers; not an idealized vision of the democratic process, …

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Estimating The Dynamics Of Mutual Fund Alphas And Betas, Harry Mamaysky, Matthew Spiegel, Hong Zhang Jan 2008

Estimating The Dynamics Of Mutual Fund Alphas And Betas, Harry Mamaysky, Matthew Spiegel, Hong Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article develops a Kalman filter model to track dynamic mutual fund factor loadings. It then uses the estimates to analyze whether managers with market-timing ability can be identified ex ante. The primary findings are as follows: (i) Ordinary least squares (OLS) timing models produce false positives (nonzero alphas) at too high a rate with either daily or monthly data. In contrast, the Kalman filter model produces them at approximately the correct rate with monthly data; (ii) In monthly data, though the OLS models fail to detect any timing among fund managers, the Kalman filter does; (iii) The alpha and …

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Comments On Lederman And Maloney’S ‘In Search Of The Missing Resource Curse’, Cameron Shelton Jan 2008

Comments On Lederman And Maloney’S ‘In Search Of The Missing Resource Curse’, Cameron Shelton

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

The paper by Daniel Lederman and William Maloney is part of a larger project of the authors.1 Their broader goal is to drive home the point that the possession of natural resource wealth does not inevitably lead to lower growth rates and thus lower per capita GDP. In their words, “the central tendency is not negative” and natural resources are neither curse nor destiny.

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Domestic Bonds, Credit Derivatives, And The Next Transformation Of Sovereign Debt, Anna Gelpern Jan 2008

Domestic Bonds, Credit Derivatives, And The Next Transformation Of Sovereign Debt, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Not long ago, financial markets in most poor and middle-income countries were shallow to nonexistent, and closed to foreigners. Governments often had to rely on risky borrowing abroad; the private sector had even fewer options. But between 1995 and 2005, domestic debt in the emerging markets grew from $1 trillion to $4 trillion. In Mexico, domestic debt went from just over 20% of the total government debt stock in 1995 to nearly 80% in 2007. Foreign and local investors are buying. Over the same period, derivative contracts to transfer emerging market credit risk surpassed the market capitalization of the benchmark …

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Strategic Regional And National Economic Development With Fiscal Equalization, Lok Sang Ho Jan 2008

Strategic Regional And National Economic Development With Fiscal Equalization, Lok Sang Ho

Centre for Public Policy Studies : CPPS Working Paper Series

This paper shows that under increasing returns, devoting resources to develop some regions strategically ahead of other regions make sense, but this does not imply that the other regions have to wait until the benefits of economic growth to trickle down. Fiscal equalization can and should be more aggressive, with the central government incurring a deficit to help the poorer regions, and the national debt thus caused to be repaid by higher taxes on the fast growing regions. Optimal fiscal equalization should also involve central government’s investment in certain kinds of public infrastructure in the local economies of the backward …

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Baghdad Booksellers, Basra Carpet Merchants, And The Law Of God And Man: Legal Pluralism And The Contemporary Muslim Experience, Haider Ala Hamoudi Jan 2008

Baghdad Booksellers, Basra Carpet Merchants, And The Law Of God And Man: Legal Pluralism And The Contemporary Muslim Experience, Haider Ala Hamoudi

Articles

There is a crisis in our law schools in the study of Islamic law and the law of the Muslim polities. The current approaches either focus exclusively on national codes to the derogation of other vitally important influences on the legal order, most importantly the body of norms and rules derived from Islamic foundational texts known as the shari'a, or they regard as secondary, and at times irrelevant, the actual legal order of the societies in favor of an academic construction of the theories of medieval Muslim jurists. Neither of these approaches reflects with a necessary degree of accuracy the …

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Who Owns 'Hillary.Com'? Political Speech And The First Amendment In Cyberspace, Jacqueline D. Lipton Jan 2008

Who Owns 'Hillary.Com'? Political Speech And The First Amendment In Cyberspace, Jacqueline D. Lipton

Articles

In the lead-up to the next presidential election, it will be important for candidates both to maintain an online presence and to exercise control over bad faith uses of domain names and web content related to their campaigns. What are the legal implications for the domain name system? Although, for example, Senator Hillary Clinton now owns "hillaryclinton.com", the more generic "hillary.com" is registered to a software firm, Hillary Software, Inc. What about "hillary2008.com"? It is registered to someone outside the Clinton campaign and is not currently in active use. This article examines the large gaps and inconsistencies in current domain …

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Do Analysts Influence Corporate Financing And Investment?, John A. Doukas, Chansog (Francis) Kim, Christos Pantzalis Jan 2008

Do Analysts Influence Corporate Financing And Investment?, John A. Doukas, Chansog (Francis) Kim, Christos Pantzalis

Finance Faculty Publications

We examine whether abnormal analyst coverage influences the external financing and investment decisions of the firm. Controlling for self-selection bias in analysts' excessive coverage, we find that firms with high (low) analyst coverage consistently engage in higher (lower) external financing than do their industry peers of similar size. Our evidence also demonstrates that firms with excessive analyst coverage overinvest and realize lower future returns than do firms with low analyst coverage. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that analysts favor the coverage of firms that have the potential to engage in profitable investment-banking business.

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Hong Kong's Money: The History, Logic And Operation Of The Currency Peg, Hwee Kwan Chow Jan 2008

Hong Kong's Money: The History, Logic And Operation Of The Currency Peg, Hwee Kwan Chow

Research Collection School Of Economics

No abstract provided.

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