Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Business Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 23 of 23

Full-Text Articles in Business

Three Chapters On Investments And Financial Institutions, Cao Fang Aug 2022

Three Chapters On Investments And Financial Institutions, Cao Fang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Only the stock selection (“alpha”) decisions of fund managers who trade on firm-specific information should have predictive return content. Faced with the same information, skilled fund managers make similar stock selection decisions. In Chapter one, we introduce a new measure - stock investment quality - which uses fund quality to weight asymmetries in private information reflected in deviations of fund from peer group ownership on stocks in a style segment. We show stocks ranked high on investment quality generate significantly higher excess returns that persist through the ensuing year. The positive investment quality–future return relationship is robust to alternative fund …


Full Disclosure: Model Uncertainty In Adjusting For Confounders, Dieudonne Dusenge Aug 2022

Full Disclosure: Model Uncertainty In Adjusting For Confounders, Dieudonne Dusenge

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the role of knowledge about underlying causal relationships in classifying controls in order to mitigate omitted- and included-variable biases. Using simulations and accounting examples, the study shows that the researcher may not distinguish good and bad controls because the underlying causal relationships are unobservable, and remedying strategies (such as the relative timing of measurement) may not remove the uncertainty in the classification. Because of the uncertainty about which controls to use, two or more models will be credible as will the distinct estimates derived from them. Next, the study shows that the current standard practice of singling …


Economic Opportunity And Community Development Financial Institutions In Clark County, Ar And Beyond: An Analysis, Magdalena Hopkins May 2022

Economic Opportunity And Community Development Financial Institutions In Clark County, Ar And Beyond: An Analysis, Magdalena Hopkins

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Arkansas is home to one of the greatest projects in the world of Community Development Financial Institutions: Southern Bancorp. Founded with the help and support of Bill Clinton, it pre-dates The Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994, which is now used to fund similar Community Development Financial Institutions. According to the Opportunity Finance Network (2022), there are more than 1,200 Community Development Financial Institutions in the United States. These institutions span the country and operate in unique communities. The CDFI Coalition (2017) cites Arkansas as having 19 Community Development Financial Institutions in the state. It is important …


The Impact Of Socioeconomic Status On Single Women, Catherine Martens May 2021

The Impact Of Socioeconomic Status On Single Women, Catherine Martens

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Since its formation in the 1700’s, America has been home to varying degrees of discrepancies between social classes, which include assumptions inherently held within these differences. Considering the fact that America was largely built by the hands of human slaves ruled by those with political influence often landowners, social hierarchy has been intricately woven into the fabric of America’s story from the beginning. Despite the progress that has been made to create and advance equal economic opportunity, there is still a considerable lack of social mobility available for those in lower socioeconomic statuses. More specifically, the impact of poverty is …


An Exploration Of The Impact Of Economic Recessions On The S&P 500 And Its Sectors, Weston Sizemore May 2021

An Exploration Of The Impact Of Economic Recessions On The S&P 500 And Its Sectors, Weston Sizemore

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is a method of predicting future stock prices based on past returns. Specific areas of CAPM analysis utilize regression analysis to accomplish this goal. Historic prices and returns for a specific stock in a company, or even whole sectors of the economy, are compared with the corresponding returns for the market. There have been several historical recessions in United States history, as well as a current, ongoing recession. These recessions, along with their causes and effects, will be discussed extensively in this paper. This paper utilizes an analysis of the Capital Asset Pricing Model …


Essays On Networks And Corporate Finance, Tatiana Salikhova May 2019

Essays On Networks And Corporate Finance, Tatiana Salikhova

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In my dissertation I explore how personal networks affect firms’ financial decisions. In the first essay, I study how social connections among divisional managers affect the capital allocation to divisions in diversified conglomerates. In contrast to the previous studies, I focus on the horizontal connections or connections formed among managers of the same level of corporate hierarchy. I show that connections among divisional managers lead to higher sensitivity of segment capital spending to segment’s growth opportunities, higher firm-level allocation efficiency and higher firm value. Additionally, firms tend to strategically assign better-connected managers to these segments, and connections help to reduce …


Essays In Leveraged Capital Markets, Kenneth D. Ford Aug 2018

Essays In Leveraged Capital Markets, Kenneth D. Ford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The debt capital markets for leveraged borrowers are ripe with information asymmetry, lender specialization, and borrower segmentation. In this dissertation, I explore how these factors manifest themselves and the economic consequences thereof. Essay 1 shows that adverse selection and moral hazard concerns are inherent in underwriting syndicates that differ in size and number of lead underwriters. Using a nested double selection probit model of syndicate choice, I examine the matching of issuers and underwriters and find that matches of issuer quality and underwriter reputation are positive assortative. Further, switching regressions show that yield spreads reflect uncertainty about the intrinsic values …


Are Prize-Linked Savings Accounts The Solution To Arkansas' Savings Problem?, Mckenzie Wages May 2018

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 …


Bank Lending Channel And Changing Credit Standards In The Residential Mortgage Market, Salman Tahsin Dec 2017

Bank Lending Channel And Changing Credit Standards In The Residential Mortgage Market, Salman Tahsin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation examines the relationship between bank conditions and the residential mortgage market. The first essay investigates the effect of bank distress on the residential mortgage market during the 2007-09 financial crisis. We use the county-aggregated change in the ratio of jumbo to nonjumbo mortgage acceptance rate as an instrumental variable to control for endogeneity between bank distress and county economic conditions. The median decrease in the instrumental variable explains an additional 1.5 percentage point decline in county home prices and a 20 basis point rise in the county unemployment rate, which represent 15% and 5%, respectively, of their median …


Performance Evaluation And Risk Management: Time Series Bootstrap Analysis Of The Mutual Funds And Banking Sectors, Lifa Huang Dec 2017

Performance Evaluation And Risk Management: Time Series Bootstrap Analysis Of The Mutual Funds And Banking Sectors, Lifa Huang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, also known as the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (“Act”), repealed a regulatory proscription in the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 that prohibited commercial bank holding companies (BHCs) from underwriting most bonds, equities, and insurance policies. After the passage of the Act in November 1999, BHCs that converted to financial holding companies (FHCs) were allowed to engage in securities underwriting without restrictions. The first paper examines whether the removal of barriers to securities underwriting had an adverse impact on the overall stability of the financial sector, and thereby, contributed indirectly to the financial crisis of 2008. The …


Hedge Fund Performance And Derivative Hedging, Yongjia Li Aug 2017

Hedge Fund Performance And Derivative Hedging, Yongjia Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of three essays which focus on hedge fund performance and derivative hedging. The first essay uses ETF returns as proxies for tradable risk factors in hedge fund performance evaluation and identifies contemporaneously relevant risk factors from the entire universe of ETFs. The model provides more informative estimates of alpha and beta coefficients for predicting hedge fund out-of-sample performance compared with other widely used hedge fund factor models. Portfolios of top alpha hedge funds selected by the model generate statistically significant out-of-sample performance that is substantially higher compared with portfolios selected by other models. In addition, the …


Financial Performance In Upstream, Downstream, And Integrated Oil Companies In Response To Oil Price Volatility, Jonathan P. Garcia May 2016

Financial Performance In Upstream, Downstream, And Integrated Oil Companies In Response To Oil Price Volatility, Jonathan P. Garcia

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper investigates the relation between crude oil price volatility and stock returns among oil companies using a three-part methodology, by using the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) as oil price benchmark. I asses the various indicators that set signals for oil price volatility and the interpretation of each (PMI, S&P500, DJIA, and World Crude Oil Output). This research also focuses on the relation between different types of companies in the oil industry (integrated, upstream, and downstream) and how each type of company will be assessed in a particular way to predict abnormal returns, based on market data and statistical analyses …


Evaluating The Impacts Of Respondent Errors In Arms: A Case Of Farm Service Agency Loans, Louise Nicole Mcminn Dec 2015

Evaluating The Impacts Of Respondent Errors In Arms: A Case Of Farm Service Agency Loans, Louise Nicole Mcminn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many studies have used the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) to research various aspects involving the agricultural sector in the United States. Since nonresponse and inaccurate reporting may cause significant bias in statistical analysis, research was conducted to determine the magnitude of response error on the farm debt section of the ARMS Phase III. A multinomial logit model identified demographic, structural, and financial characteristics of FSA Farm Loan Program (FLP) borrowers who refused to indicate if they had end of year farm debt, or who accurately or inaccurately classified their farm operations as having end …


Inflation Targeting And Dollarization In Bolivia, Hugo Vaca Pereira Rocha May 2015

Inflation Targeting And Dollarization In Bolivia, Hugo Vaca Pereira Rocha

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis attempts to test the effectiveness of the IT regime as a nominal anchor (reference for monetary policy) to the Bolivian Central Bank through the use of the Taylor rule. In order to use the Taylor Rule, it will be necessary to collect data from the monetary aggregates, interest rates (preferably US interest rates since the boliviano is pegged to the US dollar), and Bolivian Central Bank international reserves. Depending upon the results of the coefficients found it would be possible to make some initial conclusions. The reason why this amount of data will be required is that this …


Essays On Moral Hazard, Bank Size, Influence, And Risk At The Federal Home Loan Banks, James Cash Acrey Dec 2014

Essays On Moral Hazard, Bank Size, Influence, And Risk At The Federal Home Loan Banks, James Cash Acrey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two chapters of research on the Federal Home Loan Bank advances, bank risk, and influence are presented. Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) advances are a growing source of debt financing for US banks. FHLB advances are not priced according to bank credit risk, creating potential for moral hazard. FHLB advances are positively related to contemporary bank risk, but the relation between prior advances and subsequent risk varies between large vs. small banks depending upon the risk measure used. The relation between FHLB advances and various measures of bank risk varies between pre-crisis (2005-07), crisis (2008-09), and post-crisis (2010-12) periods differently …


Private Debt Syndicates: Governance, Networks, And Syndicate Structure, William R. Mccumber Aug 2013

Private Debt Syndicates: Governance, Networks, And Syndicate Structure, William R. Mccumber

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I examine the primary market for syndicated private credit agreements to U.S. firms within the context of contract theory with information asymmetries between contracting parties in a repeated game. Specific governance mechanisms determine a firm's cost of borrowing in syndicated credit agreements. Firms with governance mitigating agency risk between stakeholders, i.e. independent boards, strong shareholder monitoring, and greater CEO pay-performance sensitivity, enjoy lower borrowing costs. The interests of creditors and shareholders diverge with regard to external governance. Lenders charge higher spreads to firms at greater risk of acquisition and reward stronger firms with price concessions when they possess staunch anti-takeover …


Too Big Not To Fail: United States Corporate Media And The 2008 Financial Crisis, Justin Lars Bergh May 2012

Too Big Not To Fail: United States Corporate Media And The 2008 Financial Crisis, Justin Lars Bergh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates United States newspaper coverage of the 2008 financial crisis, with a particular focus on the debate that took place in press coverage surrounding the proposed 700 billion dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Specifically, this study aims to understand how, when faced with a crisis that threatened hegemony, the state and economic elites, working in and through media, were able to effectively convince the subordinate classes to consent to state intervention aimed at perpetuating a financial system that has historically profited from the relative financial insecurity of the subordinate classes. In order to understand media's role in …


Three Essays On Opacity, Corporate Governance, And Credit Ratings, Yiwen Gu Aug 2011

Three Essays On Opacity, Corporate Governance, And Credit Ratings, Yiwen Gu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the first essay, utilizing a more recent and expanded 20-year sample 1991-2010 of dual-rated bonds issued, I confirm Morgan's (2002) finding that banks are relatively more opaque than nonbanks. The likelihood of a rating split is higher, and the magnitude of the rating gap is larger, for banks than nonnbanks. Moreover, rating agency disagreements are more significant for banks with relatively higher loan and trading securities holdings and maintain lower capital, and for banks engaged in mortgage securitization. Importantly, I find that rating agency disagreements reflect market proxies of information uncertainty. Further, opacity makes external financing more costly. Equity …


Market Volatility Asymmetries: The Effects Of Stock Market Returns On Realized And Implied Volatilities, Matthew M. Chestnut Jan 2009

Market Volatility Asymmetries: The Effects Of Stock Market Returns On Realized And Implied Volatilities, Matthew M. Chestnut

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Volatility is an integral and inescapable variable of financial engineering, modeling, and finance theory itself Classical financial economics proxies volatility for risk itself, as it becomes difficult to predict future price realizations of a given asset when that asset exhibits significant price volatility over a given time. However, the nature of volatility as it is explained by classical financial economics has been extensively questioned in the previous three decades, since it is characterized as a function of uncertainty aggregate market psychology-that is, as a function of fear, greed, exuberance, and other fundamental human instincts and emotions. While previous research has …


An Investigation Of Changes In Contributions Of State Lotteries To Education Over Time, Andrea Lee Parker Jan 2006

An Investigation Of Changes In Contributions Of State Lotteries To Education Over Time, Andrea Lee Parker

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Arkansas is one of many states in this country that is experiencing an education funding crisis. Despite the fact that states have started taking more responsibility for the funding of their public schools since the mid-1950s, litigation over education funding has occurred in almost every state in the United States. Litigation in Arkansas began in the 1980s and continues today with the Lake View case. Several alternatives have been proposed to reform the state's education system and its methods of funding, including school consolidation, raising taxes, and adopting an education-supporting lottery. Lotteries have become very popular revenue raising mechanisms in …


Semi-Strong Form Market Hypothesis: Evidence From Cnbc's Jim Cramer's Mad Money Stock Recommendations, Elizabeth Dodson Jan 2006

Semi-Strong Form Market Hypothesis: Evidence From Cnbc's Jim Cramer's Mad Money Stock Recommendations, Elizabeth Dodson

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Mad Money has become one of the most popular shows on CNBC. The host, Jim Cramer, has an outlandish style and personality that viewers find intoxicating. Cramer's goal for the show is to make people money. Does he succeed? This paper finds that investors can expect to gain above-average, risk adjusted returns by following Cramer's stock recommendations and trading accordingly. These findings challenge the semi-strong form market hypothesis. According to this hypothesis investors should not recognize gains trading on public information since it states that the market has already adjusted prices for that information. It also contributes to current literature …


A Study Of The Civil Justice Reform Act Of 2003: Can Tort Reform Benefit Arkansas?, Scott Jackson Jan 2005

A Study Of The Civil Justice Reform Act Of 2003: Can Tort Reform Benefit Arkansas?, Scott Jackson

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Without question, reforming America's civil justice system has become a hot button issue in today's political landscape. While most Americans move about their daily lives without giving the subject a second thought, politicians ranging from aspiring state assemblymen to the recently reelected George W Bush have placed tort reform at the forefront of American political affairs. Although problems plaguing American courts have been discussed for years, criticism of America's current system for adjudicating tort cases has reached a fever pitch. Among the more vocal critics are powerful lobbyist groups, such as the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Tort …


Does The Adoption Of "Economic Value Added" Improve Corporate Performance?, Matthew Louis Bell Jan 2004

Does The Adoption Of "Economic Value Added" Improve Corporate Performance?, Matthew Louis Bell

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Determining how to properly measure corporate performance is one of the most important problems in contemporary corporate finance. Without a sound mechanism to evaluate managerial performance, a corporation's management has no adequate standard to be judged by. This can destroy the firm's value very quickly through poor managerial decisions. For this reason, managers need to be evaluated and compensated based on a performance measure that truly demonstrates the changes in a company's value. The interests of executives and shareholders do not always coincide, as can be seen through many of the current corporate scandals. Thus, it is almost universally argued …