Business Commons^™

Are Prize-Linked Savings Accounts The Solution To Arkansas' Savings Problem?, Mckenzie Wages

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research finds that access to prize-linked savings could improve the financial security of Arkansans. Prize-linked savings (PLS) accounts are nontraditional savings products that offer depositors the chance to win cash prizes instead of a typical interest rate return. Given the low median incomes, high liquid asset poverty rates, and high levels of underbanked and undereducated individuals in Arkansas, there is a need for an innovative savings solution like PLS in the state. PLS accounts capitalize on individuals’ propensity for lottery-like risk-taking to inspire the productive behavior of personal saving. A wide range of individuals, especially those who could stand …

Fair Trade And Its Value In Today’S Globalized Economy, Kristen Unangst

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My capstone examines how fair trade can operate in today’s globalized economy and how it can aid in solving some of the large problems that globalization has created. This paper is structured in the following way. It first examines globalization and the ways that it has advanced the world today. Then, it ventures into the problems that globalization has created and how they can be repaired using fair trade. This paper also looks into how fair trade has been successful in the recent past and how it can be improved in the future. It especially highlights how profitable fair trade …

The Effects Of Food Security On Socioeconomic Mobility In The United States: A Case Study In Allendale County, South Carolina, Taylor St Clarke

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between food security – defined as accessibility to an affordable, nutritious, and sustainable source of food – and socioeconomic mobility in the continental United States. This thesis is primarily focused on the effects of food insecurity on both individuals and communities, examining the chronic long-term effects of such insecurity on areas known as “food deserts,” which are often given status as areas of persistent poverty. This research further examines the effects of a sustained poor diet, brought about by food insecurity, on the individual and overarching community in a food desert and how such a …

Does Migration Cause Income Inequality?, Pia M. Orrenius, Madeline Zavodny

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Research

Inequality has been rising across the world in recent decades. Latin America has been an exception to what otherwise seems to be the prevalent trend in the U.S., Europe and Asia. In the U.S. the rise in inequality since the 1970s has coincided with the rise in Mexican immigration. In Mexico, inequality has been declining since the mid-1990s, a period during which emigration to the U.S. first increased to historic highs and then declined steeply.

Our review of the literature suggests that low-skilled immigration to the U.S., much of it from Mexico, has only played a minor role in rising …

¿La Migración Causa Desigualdad De Ingresos?, Pia M. Orrenius, Madeline Zavodny

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Research

La desigualdad ha aumentado en décadas recientes a lo largo del mundo. Latinoamérica ha sido una excepción a lo que, por lo demás, parece ser la tendencia prevalente en los Estados Unidos, Europa y Asia. En los Estados Unidos, la acentuación de la desigualdad desde los años 1970 ha coincidido con el aumento de la migración mexicana. En México, la desigualdad ha disminuido desde mediados de la década 1990, periodo durante el que la emigración a los Estados Unidos se elevó, primero a niveles nunca antes visto, para luego declinar de manera abrupta.

Nuestra revisión bibliográfica sugiere que la inmigración …

Human Trafficking In The Wake Of Natural Disasters: Is The United States Any Different Than Third World Countries?, Samantha Stout

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research compares the impacts of devastating natural disasters on levels of human trafficking in developed countries to the impacts experienced in third world countries. The two disasters selected for this study were Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana and the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia. Factors selected to measure the impacts of the natural disaster include income level, homelessness, and unemployment rates.

Human trafficking is a crime that touches nearly every country around the world. It is known that human trafficking levels are impacted by factors including poverty levels of regions, political unrest, and even natural disasters. There is …

Essays On Banking And Corporate Finance, Alev Isil Yildirim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of two chapters.

Chapter 1: The Effect of Relationship Banking on Firm Efficiency

This paper analyzes the impact of relationship bank oversight on firm operational efficiency and default risk. I find that a new loan from a relationship bank improves the technical efficiency of inefficient firms that have an elevated probability of default. Moreover, borrowing firms with elevated default risk exposure experience reductions in their probabilities of default in the years following new relationship bank loans, benefiting both banks and borrowers. Thus, the benefits of relationship bank monitoring are most apparent the higher the ex ante default …

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 …

Income Inequality And Its Effect On Work-Related Fatalities, Luke Chadwick

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

While many papers have examined the effect of income inequality on a range of health outcomes, few have examined data on workplace fatalities. This study compiles data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Gini coefficient estimates for each of the U.S. states from 2008-2015 to estimate the effect of income inequality on workplace fatality rates using multiple regression models. The resulting estimates are partially significant; however, they do not conclusively demonstrate a causal relationship between income inequality and workplace fatalities due to biases and other factors.

Gender Diversity Around The World: The Role Of Country Legal Regulations And Culture, Madison E. Newton

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

The goal of this project is to analyze the factors that contribute to the gender discrepancy in labor force participation rates around the world. This paper will explore potential drivers of the gender disparity phenomenon through the analyzation of country-specific elements to detect related impacts that may be imposed on a country’s composition of labor force as it relates to gender. More specifically, I interpret the degree to which specific factors can directly influence the proportion of female presence in labor forces around the world. My empirical results suggest that the societal factors, legal regulations, culture, total fertility rate (births …

Higher Education Savings And Planning: Tax And Nontax Considerations, F. Philip Manns Jr., Timothy M. Todd

Texas A&M Law Review

Funding higher education is among the critical financial decisions made by individuals and families. There are myriad options. Yet, the conventional wisdom—namely using Section 529 Plans—may not be the optimal vehicle to effectuate this goal. Therefore, this Article discusses various strategies to plan, save, and pay for higher education. It compares various savings methods including gifts, UTMA accounts, Section 529 Plans, trusts, and other vehicles. The analysis explores both tax and non-tax considerations, including the effect of different strategies on financial aid, transaction costs, investor control, income taxes, gift and estate taxes, flexibility, and creditor protection. This Article concludes that …

The Nfl And Trump: Did Protesting Cause The Decline?, Jameson Osmond

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This project is a study in econometric modeling of the effects of the protests of the national anthem in the NFL during the 2016-2017 seasons. The project is created to determine the accuracy or lack thereof of President Donald Trump's statement that the cause of the decline in viewership and ratings (and thus business) of NFL games was caused by protests that deterred US viewers.

Using viewership and rating data, along with various protest indexes created by collecting game-level protest data, an econometric model was constructed to allow for control over various endogenous and exogenous variables that surround NFL in-season …

Market Imperfections, Macroeconomic Conditions, And Capital Structure Dynamics: A Cross-Country Study, Moonsoo Kang, Wei Wang, Ying Xiao

Business Faculty Publications

This paper investigates how “systematic” adjustment costs proxied by market imperfections and macroeconomic conditions affect capital structure dynamics in a cross-country setting. We document substantial variations in firms’ capital structure adjustments across countries and, particularly, over time. Consistent with adjustment costs impeding firms from rebalancing their capital structures, worse market imperfections are associated with slower speeds of adjustment (SOA) and larger leverage deviations. Intertemporally, capital structure adjustment is procyclical, with SOA increasing by 0.9 percentage point for a one-percentage-point increase in GDP growth rate. The procyclicality is attributable to good macroeconomic conditions mitigating market imperfections through channels of 1) facilitating …

The Controversial F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: America's Most Expensive Weapons System And Its Global Impact, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Creative Materials

Provides an overview on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program involving the U.S. and many allied countries. Describes the costs of this program, the technical problems it has experienced, its economic impact on the U.S. and allied countries, the JSF's operational capabilities, potential combat scenarios in which it could be used, and the campaign finance impact aerospace companies and unions have in the electoral process.

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: April 25, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The Leading Economic Indicator – Nebraska (LEI-N) 1 rose by 0.88% during March of 2018. The increase in the LEI-N, which is designed to predict economic activity six months into the future, suggests that the Nebraska economy will grow steadily through the summer of 2018. Strong business expectations, rising manufacturing hours and rising air passenger enplanements were the reasons for the LEI-N increase. Respondents to the March Survey of Nebraska Business reported plans to increase both sales and employment at their businesses over the next six months. Initial claims for unemployment insurance changed little during March but there was a …

The Effect Of Excess Reserves On U.S Real Gross Domestic Product, Prince J. Adjei

Doctoral Dissertations (DBA)

The recent financial crisis has triggered questions regarding the role of the Federal Reserve Bank and the effectiveness of its intervention in the financial markets, post the crisis. This paper investigates the impact of huge spikes in excess reserves on the U.S. real gross domestic product. U.S. Federal Reserve in an effort to deal with the 2008 financial crisis instituted a series of programs aimed at taming the impact of the crisis. Through its emergency lending activities and Quantitative Easing (QE) programs, the Federal Reserve created a huge spike in excess reserves to levels not seen before. The empirical findings …

Cpec: The Dynamics Of Economy And Finance, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Talks, Speeches, & Discourse

This paper would attempt to set the ball rolling for subsequent discussion by the panelists at this and subsequent sessions by addressing five oft‐asked questions about the CPEC: 1. What is the total size committed by China, what are the different components of CPEC, and how is the phasing of the program? 2. Where do we stand? What has the CPEC achieved so far and what should we expect in the future? 3. What net benefits are likely to accrue to the Pakistan economy and the society at large? 4. How much financing burden the CPEC projects would impose on …

The Digital Global Supply Chain: The Growing Case For Blockchain Technology Expansion Within Global Supply Chain, Jonathan Chichoni, Scott Webb Dr.

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In a competitive global market place, technology adoption and application in supply chain is becoming increasingly important as companies seek to acquire competitive advantages. Since blockchain’s advent to the global stage of modern disruptive technologies, several questions remain unanswered pertaining to the benefits that blockchain adoption poses to global supply chains. I apply a typology analysis to a corpus of company filings, press releases and industry studies to better understand the reasons for which global supply chains industry wide are adopting blockchain technology and the specific benefits which they seek to exploit through the use of blockchain. I characterize the …

On Central Branch/Reinsurance Risk Networks: Exact Results And Heuristics, Florin Avram, Sooie-Hoe Loke

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

Modeling the interactions between a reinsurer and several insurers, or between a central management branch (CB) and several subsidiary business branches, or between a coalition and its members, are fascinating problems, which suggest many interesting questions. Beyond two dimensions, one cannot expect exact answers. Occasionally, reductions to one dimension or heuristic simplifications yield explicit approximations, which may be useful for getting qualitative insights. In this paper, we study two such problems: the ruin problem for a two-dimensional CB network under a new mathematical model, and the problem of valuation of two-dimensional CB networks by optimal dividends. A common thread between …

Nebraska Business And Consumer Confidence Indexes: April 6, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Nebraska consumer and business confidence rose during March 2018. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) rose to 106.8 in March from a value of 101.6 in February. The Business Confidence Index – Nebraska (BCI-N) rose to 110.4 in March from 107.4 In February. Both March values are well above the neutral level of 100.0 suggesting that business and consumer confidence are strong. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by 35 percent of respondents, while the availability and quality of labor was mentioned as the most important issue by 23 percent. Another …

An Analysis Of Retail Sales In Micropolitan Areas In The Year 2000, Brett Miller, Michael Davidsson

Paper Presentations

In this paper retail sales will be used to help understand the consumer spending habits of micropolitan areas in the year 2000. The year 2000 was a big year for American consumers, it was at the turn of the century, some said that the world was ending; others said it was just the begging of a new technological era. This paper will take a look at many factors that could have affected the retail sales (i.e. consumer spending) in micropolitan areas, as well as be able to help explain the consumer confidence in the year 2000. Areas such as population …

Shaping Our World For A Better Tomorrow: Sustainable Investing, Esg, And Industry Insight, Anna M. Ballate

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sustainable investing is a relatively new field in the world of finance and banking. Even though there is tremendous growth in sustainable investments over the past few years, it is still a niche market that requires more transparency, standards, and incentives. Switzerland has become one of the leading countries for sustainable finance, exhibiting a growth in sustainable investments under management. Despite the vast amount of research and development on sustainable investing, there is still much confusion and negative perception in the professional banking world about the topic. This study is designed to fill the gap between the academic rhetoric behind …

The Relationship Between Financial Literacy, Financial Status, And Academic Success In College Students, Brian Douglas Brausch

Dissertations

As the cost of college continues to rise, an increasing number of students are relying on loans and credit cards to fund their postsecondary education. In an effort to curb student debt and increase retention and graduation rates, many universities have begun to offer financial literacy initiatives to stimulate financial knowledge and promote positive money management behaviors.

This study examines the relationship between a for-credit personal financial literacy course and student academic success and economic status. Students who took a personal finance course during their first or second year of college are compared to a random sampling of students who …

Passion With Purpose A Case Study Of St. Jude Children’S Research Hospital, Allyson Favuzza

Honors Projects in Management

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is “leading the way the world understands, treats, and defeats childhood cancer and other life threatening diseases” (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital). Fifty-five years ago when St. Jude opened its doors, the overall childhood cancer survival rate was 20 percent; today, the overall childhood cancer survival rate exceeds 80 percent. Through research and discovery, St. Jude has played a pivotal role in increasing this survival rate. St. Jude, a non-profit organization and hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, operates primarily through donations. St. Jude-American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) is the fundraising and awareness organization with the …

The Impact Of Real Interest Rate On Real Exchange Rate: Empirical Evidence From Japan, Tomiwa Shodipe

2018 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity – Documents

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of real interest rate on the real exchange rate in Japan using Two Stage Least Square econometric techniques. The two instruments used are money supply and gross domestic product growth rates. The result provides support for the theoretical and empirical evidences of positive relationship between real interest rate and real exchange rate in Japan. The estimation also shows that there is positive relation between trade and Japanese Yen over the period considered in the study. In light of these findings, the study suggests the adoption of fiscal macroeconomic policy instruments that are capable of …

An Inquiry Into The Causes Of Growth In Gross Domestic Product, Thomas Hext, Michael Davidsson

Paper Presentations

This study is an inquiry into the causes of growth in nationwide gross domestic product in the United States of America. The primary objective has been to measure the effects of taxation, saving rate and government investment on this important economic indicator. “Taxation” has been broken down into three components; personal income tax, corporate income tax and consumption tax. Personal income tax is separated once again into the highest and lowest brackets to facilitate more incisive analysis of the results. Consumption taxes are decided at the state level which meant that an average national consumption tax had to be calculated …

Gambling On Revenue, Kelsey Tallent, Michael Davidsson

Paper Presentations

My findings from my study have concluded that median age and subprime credit population were actually significant for every test when I thought they would be the least significant. If the evidence suggested is true Sedgwick county has a population that is focused on the younger population with higher credit scores when income is insignificant so this tells us that the college aged people with parents that have high credit scores are fueling casino revenue. Wyandotte county can be seen as the exact opposite because it is focused on the older population with higher income and higher credit scores. Ford …

Financial Literacy: Impact On Student Success, Alexandra Cummingham

Honors Projects in Accounting

Financial literacy has proven to be an essential skill for young adults to help in achieving success and reaching one’s potential. Many studies find that those with a stronger background in financial literacy are more likely to demonstrate positive behaviors, both financially and in other areas. This study will attempt to draw a link between Bryant University students’ background in financial literacy and benefits within the college classroom. Specifically, my study will look at whether having a stronger background in financial literacy leads to increased confidence in the classroom, decreased accounting anxiety, and superior academic performance. The study uses primary …

Executive Summary_Financing Climate Resilience: Mobilizing Resources And Incentives To Protect Boston From Climate Risks, David L. Levy, Rebecca Herst

Sustainable Solutions Lab

This report explores the challenges of financing climate-resilience investments in the Boston region. As risks from storm surge, sea level rise, and extreme weather increase, there is growing urgency for pre-disaster investments to reduce physical risk, reduce social vulnerability, and increase capacity for emergency response and disaster recovery. However, these investments face significant barriers, including market failures, capital budget constraints, and misaligned incentives. The report identifies a range of funding mechanisms appropriate at different scales, including general obligation bonds, resilience fees, property tax surcharges, stormwater fees, tax increment financing, business improvement districts, and insurance-based funding. It evaluates these mechanisms using …

Airbnb's Effect On The Hospitality Industry, Eric A. Douglas

Student Publications

I examined the effect that Airbnb’s entrance into and disruption of the hospitality market in 2011 had on hotel room rates across the world by 2017. Hotel room rates were taken from published data tables rather than my own analysis because of an unavailability of raw hotel pricing data. Price comparisons between current Airbnb and hotel room rates were researched to see if one method of accommodation would be better than the other. Twenty-seven cities’ hotel rate averages and Airbnb entire-home prices were averaged and compared. There was a significant difference in hotel room rates between 2011 and 2017, during …