Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Financial Institutions And Systemic Risk: The Case Of Bank Of America 2006-2017, Jeffrey Mills

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper explores systemic risk and financial institutions before, during, and after the financial crisis. It focuses on Bank of America the 2^nd largest bank in the United States by assets. The paper includes an introduction to systemic risk and a review of literature on systemic risk. A few traditional measures of systemic risk will be defined, such as nonperforming loans, return on assets, return on equity, earnings per share, net interest margin, and capital adequacy ratio. Finally, the paper will take a look at how these traditional measures specifically relate to Bank of America from 2006 to 2017. …

Cryptocurrency: The Argument For Its Allocation Within The Traditional Investor's Portfolio, Nicholas Costanza

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research explores the significance of cryptocurrencies upon the “traditional” investor’s portfolio, particularly elaborating on the potential returns and advocating for its allocation within any balanced (or diversified) portfolio. Cryptocurrencies are a relatively new asset and are still considered to be extremely risky. They are characterized by ever-fluctuating prices, ongoing government regulation, and overall market skepticism. However, the potential of major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and Litecoin) to produce major returns cannot be easily ignored. This paper builds upon the research of those in academia, as well as highly respected investors. The hope is to outline both the pros and …

Quantifying The Return On Investment Of After School Programming, Ayesha Patel

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

Each fiscal year, there is a battle on Capitol Hill as lawmakers wrestle with reconciling political promises to financial reality. This process is completed with the goal of efficiently allocating scarce resources, in this case tax dollars and other government revenue, across the needs of the over 325 million diverse residents of the United States. Some budget items garner almost universal support, such as defense funding, infrastructure and education. While individuals may differ on how much funding each of these causes should receive, almost all agree that they should be funded by the federal government. Other budget items, such as …

Effective Resource Utilization In Arkansas Public Schools, Ryan Sanders

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Teacher pay in Arkansas public schools varies widely from district to district across the state. This pay discrepancy is driven by both the funds available to a district and by how these funds are allocated. There is a standard per student budget given to districts across the state, but this budget can be supplemented by additional property taxes collected on property within a district. This leaves districts with more highly valued property at an advantage. Districts are free to allocate their budget for teacher pay as they see fit, with constraints on number of students per teacher and minimum teacher …

Ethereum And The Sec: Why Most Distributed Autonomous Organizations Are Subject To The Registration Requirements Of The Securities Act Of 1933 And A Proposal For New Regulation, Tiffany L. Minks

Texas A&M Law Review

In a world full of new technology, the risk of fraud is constantly increasing. In the securities industry, this risk existed long before the use of technology. Congress enacted the Securities Act of 1933 to combat the risk of fraud and misrepresentation in the sale of securities. By requiring full disclosure, investors have the opportunity to make informed decisions prior to investing. However, Distributed Autonomous Organizations (“DAOs”), through the use of blockchains and smart-contracts, engage in the sale of securities without fully disclosing the risks or complying with the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933. Compliance with the …

Are Bond Ratings Informative? Evidence From Regulatory Regime Changes, Louis H. Ederington, Jeremy Goh, Yen Teik Lee, Lisa Yang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The recent Dodd-Frank Act (Section 939B) enacted in 2010 repeals credit rating agencies’ (CRAs) exemption from Regulation Fair Disclosure. We test whether CRAs continue to provide new information to the market after the repeal. We find that the significant pre-repeal stock price responses to rating changes disappear after the regime change. Bond price reactions however remain significant. These results are even more significant at the investment-speculative boundary. Our evidence suggests that CRAs serve as a conduit for transmitting private information before the repeal. It also shows that regulatory constraint is a channel by which credit ratings affect cost of financing.

Valuing Downstream Oil & Gas Companies: The Case Of Phillips 66, Taylor Robertson

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

While oil and gas prices remain volatile and often uncertain, they can provide key insight to businesses within the industry. In fact, oil and gas companies are considered to be more linked to oil prices than other day to day operations. In this paper, I will illustrate the relationship oil prices and crack spreads have on downstream oil and gas companies, specifically Phillips 66. Additionally, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and Fama & French 3-factor Model are evaluated to determine the best method to value a downstream oil and gas company. To do this, I will regress all factors against …

Buy-And-Hold Versus Momentum Investment Strategies During Financial Crises, Howard Ly

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

In his article, “Where the Black Swans Hide & The 10 Best Days Myth,” Mebane Faber found that most of the best and worst trading days occur when the market is already declining. This phenomenon is due to increased volatility during bear markets, a result of investors’ emotions. Emotions, particularly fear and greed, lead to irrational trading behavior, resulting in rampant speculation or panic selling. Ideally, an investor would be in the market for the above-mentioned best days and be out of the market during the worst days. However, the difficulty in predicting these important dates have led some investors …

Relation Between Inward Fdi Flows And Stock Market Development: Evidence From Emerging Economies, Luis Ramirez

Financial Analyst

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows have grown rapidly in size and importance in recent decades. They are an important source of capital in emerging markets and make up a significant proportion of GDP in many countries around the world. The international investment literature provides an extensive list of the impact of such capital flows, ranging from an increase in technological spillovers to a reduction in the market capitalization of the destination country’s stock market. This paper looks at one aspect of this broader research question. It examines the impact of FDI inflows on the size and liquidity of 14 developing …

Revisiting Wealth Effects And Merger Premium Determinants In The U.S. Financial Services Industry, Paul Vita

Financial Analyst

The U.S. financial services industry’s gains are generally soaring these days in light of impending deregulation and lower taxes for their clients as well as for themselves, but have they really emerged from the long shadow cast by the global financial crisis? This paper attempts to examine this issue focusing on two aspects of mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. financial services industry: the wealth effects and the merger premiums. Based on a sample of over 2,500 mergers and acquisitions deals completed during the period 2004 through 2016 and using the event study methodology, this study finds that target shareholders …

The Impact Of Labor Rights On Equity Returns: A Cross-Country Analysis, Robin Lieb

Financial Analyst

There is ample evidence that financial market development leads to economic growth. If improving labor rights can be shown to positively influence equity markets, then that, in turn, will lead to economic growth. The finance literature has examined the impact of a broader metric, namely, the Economic Freedom Index, on equity returns worldwide and the evidence is mixed. This study focuses on one dimension of economic freedom: labor rights. Specifically, the study analyzes the impact of labor rights on national equity market indexes, using the Labor Rights Index developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the …

Acquisitions: Walmart Vs Amazon, Scott Sims

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The retail industry is in the process of undergoing major change. Historically big box brick and mortar strategies have dominated, but this is changing in the age of impatience and instant gratification. As consumers want items more conveniently, online retail has taken hold with no semblance of anticipated decline. At the forefront of this transformation are two industry giants: Walmart and Amazon. Walmart finds itself on the side of brick and mortar with 11,718 physical retail locations worldwide. Amazon is dominating the online retail space with control of a staggering 44% of all US e-commerce sales in 2017. These equally …

Illustrating The Contrasts Of Initial Coin Offerings And Initial Public Offerings, Adam Jones

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper explores the intricacies of an Initial Coin Offering and how it differs from an Initial Public Offering, specifically in terms of its process, regulations, utility, performance, and risks. The paper begins with an introduction to cryptocurrencies that includes the development of Bitcoin to more recent developments, in order to give readers the proper background knowledge to understand Initial Coin Offerings. The paper then describes the differences between a coin and a token. Finally the paper lays out the characteristics of an Initial Coin Offerings and then compares those characteristics with that of an Initial Public Offering.

Option Listing And Information Asymmetry, Jianfeng Hu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Option listing increases informed and uninformed trading by 12.4% and 23.9%, respectively, in the US between 2001 and 2010, hence reducing relative information risk. We establish the causal effects using control stocks with similar propensities of listing and a quasi-natural experiment using option listing standards. The benefits are more prominent for stocks with active options trading and opaque stocks. The reduction of information risk is larger for good news than bad news, and the stock price response to earnings surprise weakens after listing. The results suggest that options improve the overall market information environment beyond substitutional effects to stock trading.

Competing On Speed, Emiliano Sebastian Pagnotta, Thomas Philippon

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We analyze trading speed and fragmentation in asset markets. In our model, trading venues make technological investments and compete for investors who choose where and how much to trade. Faster venues charge higher fees and attract speed-sensitive investors. Competition among venues increases investor participation, trading volume, and allocative efficiency, but entry and fragmentation can be excessive, and speeds are generically inefficient. Regulations that protect transaction prices (e.g., Securities and Exchange Commission trade-through rule) lead to greater fragmentation. Our model sheds light on the experience of European and U.S. markets since the implementation of Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and Regulation …

Shareholder Coordination And Stock Price Informativeness, Incheol Kim, Christos Pantzalis, Bin Wang

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

We show that firm‐specific information is more likely to be incorporated into stock prices when firms have stronger shareholder coordination. The premise of our work is that geographic proximity reduces communication costs among shareholders, thereby leading to better coordination. The positive coordination‐informativeness relation is driven mainly by shareholder coordination among dedicated and independent institutions. We further show that the positive effect is more pronounced for firms with weaker governance mechanisms, suggesting that shareholder coordination could serve as a substitute conduit of price discovery. Lastly, we propose that shareholder coordination improves stock price informativeness through the channel of enhanced voluntary disclosure …

Debt Heterogeneity And Covenants, Yun Lou, Clemens A. Otto

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Coordination failure among owners of heterogeneous debt types increases distress costs. Covenants reduce expected distress costs by lowering the probability of liquidity shortages, increasing liquidation values, and incentivizing creditor monitoring. We predict and find that new debt contracts include more covenants when borrowers' existing debt structures are more heterogeneous. Our findings suggest that covenants are not only used to address creditor-shareholder conflicts but also to reduce the expected costs of coordination failure among creditors. Further, our results indicate a dynamic component missing from static debt structure models: Debt heterogeneity entails additional covenants (i.e., constraints) when raising future debt.

An Investigation Measuring The Impact Of Financial Literacy Programs On University Student Debt, Morgan O'Sullivan

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Student loan debt is the most common form of debt in the United States today outside of mortgage debt. The research for this study sought to (1) investigate whether financial literacy programs in the State of Florida have an impact on student debt levels, as well as (2) determine how the responsibility for the provision of financial literacy education was distributed throughout a university community. The research provided for a survey that was sent to 70 institutions in the State of Florida analyzing whether or not these institutions had financial literacy programs in place. A survey was also sent out …

How Fintech Startups Succeed In Financial Inclusion To Bank The Unbanked, Miguel Soriano

Asian Management Insights

In the drive to bank the unbanked, digital technology may succeed where others could only dream.

An Investment Guide For Millennials, Joshua Perkins

Senior Honors Projects

While almost a majority of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers invest in the stock market, only a mere one-third of Millennials invest. In today’s economy, Millennials experience a range of financial challenges, including student debt, rising rents, and lower starting salaries. A recent study has found that the average retirement age for Millennials will be 75 years old, 10 years older than the average retirement age today. Most young adults do not realize the importance of saving, investing early, and the power of compounding returns in order to be more financially stable in the future.

Over the course of my …