Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Agency Mbs As Safe Assets, Zhiguo He, Zhaogang Song

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Measured as yield spreads against Treasury securities and AAA corporate bonds, the convenience premium of newly issued agency MBS averages more than half of the long-term Treasury convenience premium. The agency MBS convenience premium and issuance amount vary negatively with mortgage rate, consistent with a prepayment-driven channel. Placing agencies into conservatorship in 2008 and introducing liquidity regulations in 2013 significantly affected MBS convenience premium, consistent with government guarantee and regulatory treatment channels. Analyses of dispersion of dealers’ prepayment forecasts, seasoned MBS, and investors’ MBS holdings deliver further economic implications for agency MBS as safe assets.

A Social Norm Perspective On Distorted Information In China, Zhe Li, Massimo Massa, Nianhang Xu, Hong Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Can social norms give rise to distorted information in China? We observe that China’s leading social norm related to alcohol consumption and social drinking enhance earnings management. An analysis of toxic alcohol scandals supports a causal interpretation. Further evidence suggests that the influence of alcohol may come from the negative externality that it creates, which is propagated by corporate leaders and cannot be attenuated by market-oriented institutions. Our results reveal a social norm externality that may have important normative implications.

Esg And Firm Performance In China: The Moderating Role Of Firm Size And Covid-19, Peng Dan

Student Works (2020-2029)

This study examines the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance and firm performance in China's A-share listed companies, with a particular focus on the moderating roles of firm size and the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on stakeholder theory, the research investigates whether ESG activities contribute positively to firm performance, and how this relationship varies with firm size and during crisis periods. The sample consists of Chinese A-share firms from 2019 to 2023, a period that includes the COVID-19 pandemic. After data processing, there are a total of 14,186 observations over the five-year period. Firm performance is measured using both …

The Influence Of Rotating Savings And Credit Associations Dynamics On Local Trade Flows In Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Fred Phanuel Okangi, Theresia E. Busagara

Business Management Review

This study examines the influence of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) on local trade flows in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Using a structured questionnaire, data were gathered from 107 ROSCA members to assess three key areas: the operational dynamics of ROSCAs, the socio-economic profiles of ROSCA members, and the accessibility of financial resources among ROSCA members. The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between the effective management of ROSCAs and increased local trade flows, underscoring that well-organized associations can facilitate smoother financial transactions. Furthermore, the diverse socio-economic profiles of ROSCA members were shown to promote knowledge-sharing and networking opportunities, …

Farm-Level Financial Decision-Making Methodologies Within A Cow-Calf Enterprise: A Scoping Review, Heidi R. Johnson, Huiting Huang, Brenna Grant

Journal of Applied Farm Economics

Beef cow-calf enterprises face unique financial challenges, requiring methodologies to assess management and technology adoption decisions’ costs, revenues, and profitability. This scoping review synthesizes research on farm-level financial assessment methods specific to cow-calf operations aiming to adopt a new practice or technology. A literature search was conducted to capture various methodologies, examining studies published between 1960 and 2024. A total of 372 articles were screened for eligibility; 61 articles met the defined inclusion criteria. Eight economic and financial methodologies were identified: break-even analysis, cost effectiveness, gross margin, enterprise analysis, partial budgeting, cost-benefit analysis, financial feasibility and net present value, and …

Usaid Grant Recipient Data Fy2002-2025, Susan Turner Haynes

Faculty Works

Grant recipient data from USAID from fiscal years 2002-2025.

A Policy Reversal As Structural Break: A Lesson From China’S Land Lease Financing For Infrastructure, Yilin Hou, Lin Li, Lei Shao

Center for Policy Research

Land-based revenues as a fiscal instrument to finance infrastructure tie public investment to real estate markets, where demand fluctuations cause fiscal consequences. This paper takes policy reversals as structural breaks and examines their impacts on infrastructure investment. We dissect China’s 2016 policy reversal that disallowed developers to finance land purchase with debt, causing sharp declines in local government land revenues, slashing their fiscal base for infrastructure investment. Using prefecture-level panel data and continuous difference-in-differences identification, we estimate the reversal reduced land-lease revenues by 55%. Two-stage least squares estimates suggest a 10% land-revenue decline translates into 6.6% investment reduction. Decomposing the …

Assessing The Influence Of Audit Committee Characteristics On The Effectiveness Of Risk Management Practices In Public Statutory Corporations In Tanzania, Gerald J. Soi, Siasa Issa Mzenzi, Said Suluo

Business Management Review

This study was conducted to examine the influence of audit committee characteristics on the effectiveness of risk management in Public Statutory Corporations (PSCs) in Tanzania, and the moderating effect of the size of an entity on this relationship. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data, which was completed by 424 chief internal auditors and directors of finance from PSCs across various Tanzanian regions, and analysed using SmartPLS (PLS-SEM) version 4.0. The findings indicate that the expertise of the audit committee and the frequency of meetings with a substantive risk agenda positively influence risk management effectiveness in PSCs. Conversely, the …

Market Reactions To Software M&A: Cross-Border Vs. Domestic Evidence, Aaryan Magan

CMC Senior Theses

The software industry in the United States has seen a period of sustained merger and acquisition (M&A) activity as firms seek synergies in diverse product offerings, efficiency plays, or intellectual capital. Within this activity is also a subset of deals that comprise U.S. acquirers transacting with foreign companies. These cross-border transactions have become an integral part of M&A strategy for companies across all industries. This paper aims to gauge investor sentiment regarding cross-border M&A deals in the software industry relative to domestic M&A deals in the software industry. The event-study methodology captures Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CAR) in two distinct event …

The Budget, Fiscal Year 2026-2027, Tennessee. Department Of Finance And Administration

Budget Volume 1

This document is the final budget for the coming fiscal year.

Equity Fund Monthly Report, January 2026, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Can Art Function As A Financial Asset Class? Conditions, Risks, And Emerging Solutions, Aurelia Labbé

MA Theses

The art market has grown significantly over recent decades, supported by rising global demand, record auction results and increasing interest from collectors pursuing financial returns. This evolution has encouraged the development of investment-oriented practices and strengthened the notion that artworks can function as financial assets. This shift takes place in a market shaped by subjectivity, opacity and limited regulatory oversight, where valuation methods, provenance documentation and professional standards remain highly uneven. These conditions make art investment particularly complex and raise essential questions about the factors that support or weaken the legitimacy of art as an asset class. This thesis examines …

Does Blue-Chip Art Genuinely Provide Diversification And Risk Mitigation Once Illiquidity, Transaction Frictions, And Survivorship Bias Are Explicitly Incorporated Into Performance Analysis, Or Is The “Safe Haven” Label Fundamentally Misleading?, Radhika Vissanji

MA Theses

Blue-chip art is widely presented as a safe haven and portfolio diversifier, particularly during periods of financial market uncertainty. This perception is reinforced by art price indices and industry reports that emphasise long-term appreciation, relatively low volatility, and weak correlation with traditional financial assets. Despite the growing prominence of these claims in advisory and institutional discourse, there remains limited agreement on whether such properties persist once the structural characteristics of the art market are fully taken into account. This thesis evaluates whether blue-chip art genuinely delivers diversification and risk-mitigation benefits under realistic market conditions. Focusing on three structural factors, illiquidity, …

Gambling Away Stability: Sports Betting’S Impact On Vulnerable H, Scott R. Baker, Justin Balthrop, Mark J. Johnson, Jason Kotter, Kevin Pisciotta

Faculty Publications

We estimate the causal effect of online sports betting on households’ investment, spending, and debt management decisions using household transaction data and a staggered difference-in-differences framework. Following legalization, sports betting spreads quickly, with both the number of participants and frequency of bets increasing over time. This increase does not displace other gambling or consumption but significantly reduces savings, as risky bets crowd out positive expected value investments. These effects concentrate among frequent bettors and low-savings households. Our findings highlight the potential adverse effects of online sports betting on vulnerable households.

Ceo Compensation Changes Following Acquisitions, Leonce Bargeron, David J. Denis

Finance and Quantitative Methods Faculty Publications

We find that CEO compensation increases following acquisitions only in those deals in which acquirer stock is used as the method of payment. These compensation increases are driven by increases in equity-based compensation and are concentrated in riskier acquirers, in riskier acquisitions, and in acquirers whose CEOs have low exposure to the stock price. We find little support for traditional agency cost explanations of changes in CEO pay following acquisitions. However, our findings are broadly consistent with compensation changes representing a contracting solution to a two-sided adverse selection problem that is present only in stock acquisitions.

The Emergence Of Buy Now Pay Later Platforms: A Business Analysis Study, Asher Frye

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis dives into the growth of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) financing and its implications for consumer financial health. Using Affirm’s 2019-2024 data and recent reporting from regulators, it documents strong BNPL expansion alongside emerging concerns about repayment risk and credit score impacts. These insights motivate me to conduct an experiment testing whether clearer disclosure affects consumer BNPL choices. While the experiment shows no statistically significant effects, it underscores the need for further study of BNPL understanding and consumer behavior.

The Prestige Paradox: Can Venture Capital Prestige Lead To Lower Startup Exit Rates?, Charlie Fenollosa

Honors Theses

This project investigates how the prestige of VC firms investing in early-stage startups affects the likelihood of successful exits, defined as IPOs or acquisitions. Using Crunchbase data on companies, funding rounds, and investments, I construct six measures of prior VC success to proxy for prestige. Contrary to conventional expectations, VC prestige is not associated with increased exit probability, a finding robust to composite, LASSO-selected, and PCA-based indices. Further analysis suggests this relationship is driven by mechanisms through which high VC prestige paired with large syndicates and high funding may create frictions, while prestigious VCs help smaller companies grow more effectively.

Signals Of Value: A Comparative Analysis Of Sde And Ebitda In Predicting Microbusiness Sale Price, Joseph E. Turley

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This dissertation compares the predictive accuracy and stability of Seller’s Discretionary Earnings (SDE) and Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) in explaining realized sale prices of microbusinesses. Microbusinesses, defined as firms with fewer than ten employees and annual revenue below $2.5 million, face persistent valuation challenges due to information asymmetry, owner dependence, and informal financial reporting. The study analyzes 5,499 completed U.S. transactions from the DealStats database (2014–2024) after applying microbusiness criteria and outlier trimming. Predictive accuracy is measured by absolute percentage error between actual sale prices and prices implied by each metric. Findings show that SDE-based predictions …

Corporate Disclosure Meets Natural Language Processing: Topic Modeling, Disclosure Strategy, And Audit Implications, Wanxin Yu

2026

Corporate disclosures serve as a critical channel for firms to communicate their financial performance, strategic initiatives, and firm-specific risks. In recent years, rapid advances in natural language processing (NLP) have provided powerful new tools for extracting insights from the growing volume and complexity of corporate disclosures. This dissertation consists of three studies that explore how advanced textual analysis can reveal deeper insights into corporate disclosures, managerial behavior, and auditor practices.

The first paper (co-authored) develops a topic-based approach to measuring the substantive content of risk factor disclosures. Using an embedding-based topic modeling framework, we identify 30 interpretable risk topics and …

Beyond The Stream: Valuing Music Catalogs As An Alternative Asset Class, Amelia Jade Magay

Honors Theses and Capstones

This thesis builds a quantitative valuation framework for music catalog transactions and tests its limits systematically. The goal is not to produce a formula that perfectly prices every deal. The goal is to identify where streaming-based financial analysis is a useful underwriting tool, where it breaks down, and what categories of value investors appear to be pricing beyond publicly available streaming data.