Corporate Finance Commons^™

Short-Window Market Reactions To Real Estate M&A: A Comparative Event Study Of Reits And Real Estate Services Firms, Aryan Kaila

CMC Senior Theses

Existing research on real estate mergers has largely focused on REIT acquirers in isolation, typically finding near-zero bidder reactions in short event windows. There is little work that directly compares REITs with publicly listed real estate services (RES) firms that operate in the same market cycles and conditions but follow different business models. Using a transaction-level dataset of 137 U.S. mergers from 1994 to 2024, this study applies event-study methodology and cross-sectional regression analysis to investigate whether equity markets respond differently to acquisitions undertaken by REITs and real estate services firms. The estimates show that REIT acquirers experience notably more …

How Does Economic Policy Uncertainty Affect Individual Contributions To Retirement Accounts?, David I. Becker

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study tests whether Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) is associated with U.S. retirement contributions and whether responses differ across account types. Using annual contribution data for defined contribution plans and Traditional and Roth IRAs with the Baker, Bloom, and Davis EPU index, I estimate multivariate regressions with standard macroeconomic controls and compare contemporaneous and lagged specifications. EPU is positively associated with 401(k) contributions, negatively associated with Traditional IRA contributions in the contemporaneous model, and not statistically significant for Roth IRAs. These results suggest uncertainty may shift how households save for retirement rather than uniformly reducing retirement saving.

Machine Learning: Thematic Feature Grouping, And The Magnificent Seven: A Forecasting Analysis, Mirarmia Jalali, Mohammad Najand, Andrew Cohen

Finance Faculty Publications

This study examines the predictability of monthly excess returns for the “Magnificent Seven” U.S. technology firms using machine learning and economically motivated thematic feature grouping. Framed as a focused study of the most systemically consequential equity panel in modern markets—seven firms representing over 30% of the S&P 500—the analysis confronts a small-N, large-P environment where economically structured dimensionality reduction is essential. Using 154 firm-level characteristics categorized into 13 economic themes, we evaluate linear, penalized, tree-based, and neural network models in a small-N, large-P setting. Unrestricted models suffer substantial overfitting and fail to outperform the historical average benchmark out-of-sample. In contrast, …

Heartbeats: Sustainable Practices In Business, Natalie Pham, Shareef Awadallah, Lily Lisco, Logan Blissenbach, Nikolaos Verginis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

HeartBeats Co. LLC is a premier audio and software technology brand that brings renewed character and performance to a stagnant space, revolutionizing the listening experience by engineering a digital music platform and headphones that possess distinct style and exceptional performance. While our team identifies and tracks trends in the market, we strive to establish market trends rather than to follow them. We are a company founded on innovation, redefining the music streaming market by combining the importance of wellness with the latest audio and software technologies and innovative functionalities. This document outlines a ten-year plan for efficient and impactful scaling, …

Three Essays On Corporate Bond Short Selling, Climate And Credit Risks, Manisha Thapa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation comprises three essays investigating topics on Corporate Bond Short Selling, Climate and Credit Risks.

The first essay addresses the question: Does climate risk influence bond short selling? We address this question by studying how climate risk influences the relationship between corporate bond short selling and subsequent credit default swap (CDS) spreads. We find that future CDS spreads are strongly related to bond short selling for the high climate risk firms. In particular, our fixed effects triple difference-in-differences (DiD) regressions show that sensitivity of subsequent CDS spreads to lagged bond short selling is significantly higher for firms with high …

Design Thinking For Corporate Social Responsibility Program Proposal Creation, Michelle "Mindy" D. Danovaro

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study used action research to explore how the use of design thinking engaged employees in the creation of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program proposal in a small- to medium-enterprises (SME) in the Sacramento region of California. The purpose of the study was to assess whether employee participation in a design thinking exercise could improve employee perception of engagement, inclusion, and reciprocity during the CSR program proposal creation. The study was grounded in social exchange theory, stakeholder theory, and design thinking methodologies. The iterative research process followed action research cycles (i.e., plan, act, observe, and reflect) integrated with …

Trophy Assets, Aneil Kovvali

Articles

Rich people like to own things that make them look cool. When the thing in question is a car, house, or boat, the implications are limited. But sometimes very rich people own assets that are more important. Within media, Elon Musk acquired Twitter, Jeff Bezos ac-quired the Washington Post, and Patrick Soon-Shiong acquired the Los Angeles Times. There has also been a craze for aerospace: Musk with Space X, Bezos with Blue Origin, Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic, and going back further, Howard Hughes with Hughes Aircraft Company. It is often difficult to understand the behavior in purely finan-cial terms, …

Freedom Of Expression Protection And Corporate Concealment Of Bad News: Evidence From State Anti-Slapp Laws, Jimmy Lee, Shaphan Ng, Il Sun Yoo, Liandong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The protection of free speech enhances the ability of various public stakeholders to disseminate privately observed adverse information about public firms, making it difficult for corporate managers to conceal negative information about their companies. Using the staggered enactment of anti strategic lawsuit against public participation (anti-SLAPP) laws across U.S. states as a shock that strengthens free speech protection, we show that stronger protection is associated with less concealment of bad news. This is evidenced by a lower likelihood of stock price crashes, a decreased probability of accounting fraud, and an increased frequency of firm-initiated negative press releases. These results are …

Prosocial Ceos And Accounting Manipulation, Mei Feng, Weili Ge, Zhejia Ling, Wei Ting Loh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper examines the association between chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) prosocial tendency and their firms’ likelihood of accounting manipulation. We measure CEOs’ prosocial tendency based on their involvement with charitable organizations. We find that prosocial CEOs are less likely to engage in accounting manipulation, as proxied by material non-reliance restatements and SEC or DOJ enforcement actions. The effect is more pronounced when CEOs are involved with charities that directly aim to improve the welfare of others and when they face stronger incentives to misreport. These results continue to hold in analyses of changes in CEOs’ prosocial tendency around turnover events. …

Peer Effects Of Corporate Disclosures: Evidence From The Registration-Based Ipo System In China, Ruilin Liu, Beng Wee Goh, Dan Li, Zheyuan Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

China launched the registration-based IPO system in 2019 whereby all firms listed on the newly established STAR board (“peer firms”) are required to disclose specific innovation and industry-related information in their prospectus. Using this event as a quasi-experiment, our study investigates the causal effects of peer firms’ disclosures on individual firms’ disclosure strategy. We find that individual firms’ management earnings forecast (MEF) precision, both its form and width, significantly decreases when peer firms disclose more information during the IPO period. In cross-sectional analyses, we find this effect to be more pronounced for individual firms that are likely to experience greater …

Does Auditor Quality Enhance Csr Disclosure?, Jimmy Lee, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo, Yanping Xu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate the relation between auditor quality and client firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure. Using an international sample of firms from 36 countries over the period 2009–2018 and a measure of the extent of CSR disclosure from Bloomberg, we find strong evidence that client firms with higher quality auditors provide more CSR disclosure. In cross-sectional analyses, we show that the relation between auditor quality and CSR disclosure is accentuated when the information environment is poorer and when the financial reporting environment and the legal institutions are weaker. Lastly, we document that firms with higher quality auditors also exhibit better …

Analisis Peringkat Kredit Korporasi Non-Keuangan Di Indonesia Ditinjau Dari Model Dan Indikator Risiko Kredit Berbasis Data Akuntansi Dan Data Pasar Periode 2013 - 2022, Reinard Tanukusuma, Eko Rizkianto

Jurnal Manajemen dan Usahawan Indonesia

This research entails an examination of credit risk assessment (credit rating) with respect to credit risk assessment models utilizing accounting data and market data for non-financial corporations in Indonesia between the years 2013 and 2022. The sample comprises credit rating values of 20 companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and included in the IDX 80 index, possessing credit ratings from PEFINDO over a ten-year period from 2013 to 2022. Panel data analysis is conducted, employing the multiple linear regression method. The findings of this study reveal that the accounting data-based model demonstrates the significance of liquidity, capital structure, and …

The Conditional Nature Of The Value Premium: Interaction And Cross-Sectional Evidence Across Market Regimes, Samuel L. Klein

Honors Thesis

This thesis examines why value-based investment strategies generate strong returns in some environments yet weaken or collapse in others. Regressions test whether the performance of the book-to-market ratio depends on the investor’s perception of financial health as defined by F-Score and accruals. Across additive regressions, interaction models, cross-sectionals, and heatmap visualizations, a consistent mechanism emerges. The book-to-market effect is strongest when financial information is neither highly reliable nor severely distressed. In these “moderate-quality” environments, investors struggle to fully distinguish the transitory components of earnings from their persistent counterparts. This makes valuation ratios particularly influential. Accrual intensity and financial strength jointly …

Marketcrafters: The 100-Year Struggle To Shape The American Economy, Jay Nathan

Journal of Global Awareness

No abstract provided.

Do Stakeholders Benefit From Green Bonds Denominated In Euro? Evidence From Global Greenium, Piotr Jaworski

Journal of Banking and Financial Economics

The aim of this paper is to estimate the greenium in the financial debt market, calculated as the difference between the yield of green bonds and conventional bonds with the same type of with respect to euro-denominated bonds, type of the debt security, type of issuers, and maturity. The hypothesis is The greenium for the euro-denominated bonds does exist. For the analysis, yield curves for green bonds and conventional bonds were built. It employed the yield curve methodology proposed by Nelson Siegel Svensson. Statistical tests on greenium were also prepared. Daily data were collected from the Refinitiv Eikon database, covering …

Exploratory Innovation: A New Perspective On Family Firms' Under-Diversification Puzzle, Po-Hsuan Hsu, Sterling Huang, Massimo Massa, Yaru Qian, Hong Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose a new perspective on family firms’ puzzling under-diversification in product spaces: these firms first need to succeed in exploratory innovation so they may diversify into new product markets. We construct a large database of family ownership and patent records of U.S. public firms, and show that family firms produce more exploratory patents than others, a relation that is stronger among under-diversified family firms. In addition, we find that such innovation indeed helps family firms diversify business risks. A causal interpretation of our result is supported by (i) using the property division standard in state-level divorce laws as an …

Financial Safety Nets, Bank Risk And Depositor Behaviour In Central And Eastern Europe, Dorota Skała

Journal of Banking and Financial Economics

We studied expansions in financial safety nets and their relation to bank risk and depositor behaviour in Central and Eastern Europe, using time-varying regulatory data. In general, we find that stronger deposit insurance and state aid granted to banks are linked with both bank risk and depositor behaviour. However, these relations critically depend on whether safety net instruments are used separately or simultaneously. When deposit insurance is strengthened or state aid is granted, we confirm the standard moral hazard behaviour of banks visible in higher bank risk. In parallel, we observe more elevated deposit growth, implying lower market discipline. Conversely, …

Exploring The Bank Lending Channel: How Bank Characteristics Shape Monetary Policy Effectiveness, Filip Świtała

Journal of Banking and Financial Economics

This paper examines how individual bank characteristics influence the transmission of monetary policy through the bank lending channel. Using panel data and a Fixed Effects model validated by the Hausman test, the author analyses how bank size, capitalization, profitability and asset quality affect responses to monetary tightening. The study highlights the importance of inter-bank differences in shaping monetary policy effectiveness and offers insights for regulatory frameworks and macroprudential policies aimed at strengthening financial stability.

Effect Of Servant Leaders’ Humility, Active Listening, And Trust-Building On Employee Engagement In U.S. Private Financial Organizations, Sunny Sung Phd, Tom Butkiewicz Ph.D.

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Ineffective leadership characteristics hinder employee engagement in the financial industry, leading to negative organizational outcomes. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational, cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between servant leaders’ humility, active listening, and trust-building and employee engagement in U.S. private financial organizations. The servant leadership theory of serving followers and the social exchange theory of reciprocity grounded this study. Using simple random sampling, the participants comprised190 employees from private financial organizations in the United States. They completed the Servant Leadership Scale-7; Servant Leadership Assessment Instrument factors 6 and 7; the hearing, understanding, remembering, interpreting, evaluating, and responding (HURIER) …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …