Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

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 …

Digital Banking: Overcoming Barriers To Entry, Alan Megargel

Dissertations and Theses Collection

This dissertation examines digital banking from the perspective of two types of industry participants; non-bank FinTech alternative [substitute] financial service providers whom are intent on disrupting the market, and [incumbent] traditional banks whom are urgently pursing digital strategies in order to counteract the FinTech threat. This study is motivated by five main research questions: (1) Are FinTech firms disrupting traditional banks, and if so, what are the modes of disruption? (2) Do tradition banks view FinTech firms as a threat, and if so, what are they doing about it? (3) What are the various digital banking strategies, and how are …

Short Covering Trades, Ekkehart Boehmer, Truong X. Duong, Zsuzsa R. Huszar

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Short sellers are known to have private information about security prices. Empirical evidence of short selling, however, is based on only half of short sellers’ trading activity; specifically, the opening of the position. Using disclosed large short position data from the Japanese stock market, we provide the first detailed evidence of covering trades and find a positive reaction to short covering that only partially reverses. While these results are consistent with substantial transaction costs for closing large short positions, they also reveal that some short sellers are privately informed about positive future events and have timing ability in covering positions.

Inflation Expectations In Singapore: A Behavioural Approach, Alexander Clark, Aurobindo Ghosh, Samuel Hanes

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The expectations of economic agents have significant impact on their decisions and are key determinants of macroeconomic outcomes such as inflation, economic growth and unemployment. For example, if a worker believes that consumer prices will rise sharply next year, she would demand a wage increase. Similarly, a homeowner with a fixed interest mortgage might make an early repayment if she expects price levels to fall, knowing that the real value of her mortgage debt will increase. In these cases, expectations about inflation could lead to changes in behaviour and in the aggregate, influence prices and become self-fulfilling.

Quantitative Easing Auctions Of Treasury Bonds, Zhaogang Song, Haoxiang Zhu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The Federal Reserve uses (reverse) auctions to implement its purchases of Treasury bonds in quantitative easing (QE). To evaluate dealers’ offers across multiple bonds, the Fed relies on its internal yield curve model, fitted to secondary market bond prices. From November 2010 to September 2011, a one standard deviation increase in the cheapness of a Treasury bond (how much the market price of the bond is below a model-implied value) increases the Fed’s purchase quantity of that bond by 276 million and increases the auction costs on that bond by 2.6 cents per $100 par value, controlling for standard covariates. …

Cryptocurrency: A New Investment Opportunity?, David Kuo Chuen Lee, Li Guo, Yu Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to use blockchain and has been the market leader since the first bitcoin was mined in 2009. After the birth of Bitcoin with the genesis block, more than 1,000 altcoins and crypto-tokens have been created, with at least 919 trading actively on unregulated or registered exchanges. This entire class of cryptocurrencies and tokens has been classified by some tax authorities as having the same status as commodities. If cryptocurrency is viewed in the same class as commodities, how different is it in terms of its risk and return structure? This article sets out to help …

Are Overconfident Ceos Better Leaders? Evidence From Stakeholder Commitments, Kenny Phua, T. Mandy Tham, Chi Shen Wei

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We find evidence that the leadership of overconfident chief executive officers (CEOs) induces stakeholders to take actions that contribute to the leader's vision. By being intentionally overexposed to the idiosyncratic risk of their firms, overconfident CEOs exhibit a strong belief in their firms’ prospects. This belief attracts suppliers beyond the firm's observable expansionary corporate activities. Overconfident CEOs induce more supplier commitments including greater relationship-specific investment and longer relationship duration. Overconfident CEOs also induce stronger labor commitments as employees exhibit lower turnover rates and greater ownership of company stock in benefit plans.

Resilience Of The Us Securities Industry To The Global Financial Crisis, Dariusz Wójcik, Theodor Florian Cojoianu

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The global financial crisis was underpinned by the securitization of subprime mortgages led by US investment banks, and its outbreak was marked by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008. This paper investigates the resilience of the US securities industry to this shock and its evolution between 2008 and 2016, with focus on employment, location, remuneration, sell-side versus buy-side dynamics, and gender. Results show that the US securities industry has suffered significant losses in terms of employment and its recovery has been slow. Under the pressures of depressed demand, new regulation and cost cutting, the industry has gone …

What Factors Determine Thesubsidiary Mode Of Overseas R&D By Developing-Country Mnes? Empirical Evidence From Chinese Subsidiaries Abroad, Yanyu Wang, Wei Xie, Jizhen Li, Chenxi Liu

PhD Student’s Publications Collection

This study examines the determinants of the subsidiary modes of overseas research anddevelopment (R&D) by Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs). Based on resource-based view and absorptive capabilities, we propose that financial resources and technologi-cal resources have different effects on the selection of overseas R&D subsidiary modes,which are competence-exploiting mode or competence-creating mode. This is supportedby the empirical results in this paper using data from a survey of 40 Chinese overseasR&D subsidiaries. The results demonstrate that the parent firms with richer financialresources and more R&D expenses prefer the competence-exploiting mode, while the par-ent firms with more R&D personnel favor the competence-creating mode. …

Do Underwriters Compete In Ipo Pricing?, Evgeny Lyandres, Fangjian Fu, Erica X. N. Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose and implement a direct test of the hypothesis of oligopolistic competition in the U.S. underwriting market against the alternative of implicit collusion among underwriters. We construct a simple model of interaction between heterogenous underwriters and heterogenous firms and solve it under two alternative assumptions: oligopolistic competition among underwriters and implicit collusion among them. The two solutions lead to different equilibrium relations between the compensation of underwriters of different quality on one hand and the time-varying demand for public incorporation on the other hand. Our empirical results, obtained using 39 years of IPO data, are generally consistent with the …

Do Alpha Males Deliver Alpha? Facial Structure And Hedge Funds, Yan Lu, Melvyn Teo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Facial structure as encapsulated by facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) maps onto masculine behaviors in males and may positively relate to testosterone. We find that high-fWHR hedge fund managers underperform low-fWHR hedge fund managers by 5.83% per year after adjusting for risk. Moreover, funds operated by high-fWHR managers exhibit higher operational risk, suffer from a greater asset-liability mismatch, and are more likely to fail. We trace the underperformance to high-fWHR managers’ preference for lottery-like stocks and reluctance to sell loser stocks. The results are robust to adjustments for sample selection, marital status, sensation seeking, and manager race, and suggest that investors …

Singapore As An Asean Asset Management Hub, Francis Koh, Boris Liedtke

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Singapore like other ASEAN countries is also confronted with the universal challenge of retirement funding. Nonetheless, the authors argue that Singapore can address such headwind through a number of policy changes and that Singapore is uniquely placed to be the premier Asset Management Hub for the ASEAN region.

Utilization Of Csr To Build Organizations’ Corporate Image In Asia: Need For An Integrative Approach, Augustine Pang, May O. Lwin, Chrystal Shu-Min Ng, Ying-Kai Ong, Shannon Rose Wing-Ching Chau, Kristle Poh-Sim Yeow

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been found to be a strong predictor of a favorable corporate image [Gray, 1986. Managing the corporate image: The key to public trust. London: Quorum Books]. Websites have become an essential communication platform [Dawkins, 2004. Corporate responsibility: The communication challenge. Journal of Communication Management, 9(2), 108–119]. This study aims to investigate how CSR can be used in enhancing organizational corporate image. Content analyses of 150 corporate websites of organizations in Asia headquartered in Singapore were conducted, followed by in-depth interviews with public relations (PR) practitioners to examine the motivations behind their CSR engagement. Findings showed …

Real-Time Inbound Marketing: A Use Case For Digital Banking, Alan Megargel, Venky Shankararaman, Srinivas K. Reddy

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Over the years banks have been strategically using digital technologies to help transform various aspects of their business. In recent times, this strategy has evolved into one of digital augmentation of the bank’s processes, products and channels. This allows for reaching out to customers and partners through digital platforms, for example; the addition of mobile apps for customers to access and perform service transactions. Marketing continues to play a major role in supporting the expansion of business and increasing revenue for the bank. Marketing has evolved from mass direct targeting to more personalised, face-to-face and real-time targeting. In the digital …

Essays In Commodities And Freight Markets, Nelson Yap

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Chapter 1: Structural Changes in Functional Curves: Estimation and Testing

Abstract: This paper considers the estimation and testing of structural changes in functional curves that occurs at an unknown date. The functional principal component analysis is applied to the random functional curves, decomposing them into interpretable simple latent functions and random scalars. We model the random scalars using a simple autoregressive model and test for a change in parameters that occur at an unknown date. This method is applied to the crude oil futures market to estimate and date possible structural breaks during OPEC announcement periods from 1984 to 2017.

Essay On Asset Pricing, Fei Gao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

We uncover a novel stock return predictor from the options market, the volume-weighted strike-spot price ratio (VWKS) across all traded option contracts. High (low) VWKS indicates that the mass of options volume on an underlying stock centers at the out-of-the-money region of call (put) options. Empirically, VWKS has positive and robust predictive ability for underlying returns after controlling for a long list of variables including known return predictors from the options market, stock illiquidity, and past stock returns, and has more persistent and stronger predictive power for stocks with higher information asymmetry and arbitrage costs. We also find that VWKS …

Singapore Approach To Develop And Regulate Fintech, Sai Fan Pei

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper starts with a brief introduction of the recent organizational support established by The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to promote the fast developing FinTech (financial technology) sector. Basing on its existing “balanced” approach in promoting financial development and ensuring a safe and sound financial sector, and in sync with its objective to harness technology to improve the efficiency of the financial markets, the paper elaborates on the insights of MAS' policy intent in regulating the FinTech sector. The paper then focuses on MAS' proposed “Regulatory Sandbox” – an innovative regulatory framework which helps to strike a good balance …

The Impact Of Advertising Share Of Voice On The Idiosyncratic Risk Of The Firm, Sungkyun Moon, Kapil R. Tuli, Anirban Mukherjee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Integrating literature in marketing, finance and accounting, this study examines the impact ofa firms’ advertising share of voice (ASOV) on investors’ uncertainty about its future financialperformance, i.e., firms’ idiosyncratic risk. Drawing on signaling theory, authors propose that ASOV serves as a signal for investors such that higher ASOV reduces idiosyncratic risk. Consistent with this argument, analysis of 2,777 publicly listed firms over a two-decade period (1995-2014) shows that ASOV has a significant negative effect on idiosyncratic risk.In addition, consistent with the argument that ASOV is a more credible signal when firmshave higher cash flows; authors find that the negative impact …

Scarcity In The Twenty-First Century: How The Resource Nexus Affects Management, Simon J. D. Schillebeeckx, Mark Workman, Charles Dean

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Since theadvent of the 21st century and especially since the food andfinancial crisis in 2008, concerns about natural resource availability haveresurfaced. While scarcity concerns date back hundreds of years and arefoundational to economics, how scarcity is interpreted or framed has evolved significantlyin the last two centuries. In this chapter, we recount the evolving scarcity discourseand specifically address the most recent iteration that centres on the idea ofa resource nexus. While significant attention to the nexus has been paid bypolicy-makers and scholars interested in especially water, management scholarshave so far remained absent from these debates. Given recent calls to address grand …

Are Disagreements Agreeable? Evidence From Information Aggregation, Dashan Huang, Jiangyuan Li, Liyao Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Most studies on disagreement focus on cross-sectional asset returns and well-recognized disagreement measures generally cannot predict the stock market with a horizon less than 12 months. This paper proposes three aggregate disagreement indexes by aggregating information across 20 disagreement measures. We show that disagreement measures collectively have a common component that has significant power in predicting the stock market both in- and out-of-sample. Consistent with the theory developed by Atmaz and Basak (2017), the indexes asymmetrically forecast the market with greater power in high sentiment periods. Moreover, the indexes negatively predict economic activities, and positively predict market volatility, illiquidity, and …

Volume Information In Nikkei And Topix Futures Transactions, Chyng Wen Tee, Christopher Ting

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

According to the Kyle (1985) model of informed trading, information in trade size is likely to effect a permanent price impact. However, two prominent structural models in the literature do not include trade size in their framework. In this paper, we present a nesting relationship of major structural models and formulate a generalized model that includes all trade variables. A new measure to quantify the amount of information in the order flow is proposed. Our empirical analysis shows that it is indeed the "surprise" in trade size that contributes significantly in reflecting the price change of Nikkei and TOPIX futures.

The Equity-Financing Channel, The Catering Channel, And Corporate Investment: International Evidence, Yuanto Kusnadi, John K. C. Wei

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine how stock market mispricing affects corporate investment in an internationalsetting. We find that investment is more sensitive to stock prices for equity-dependent firms thanfor non-equity-dependent firms in our international sample. Investment is also more sensitive tostock prices for firms located in countries with more developed capital markets (i.e., lower costsof raising capital), higher share turnover (i.e., shorter shareholder horizons), and higher R&Dintensity (i.e., more opaque assets). More importantly, the positive relation between equitydependence and the sensitivity of investment to stock prices is more pronounced for firmslocated in these same countries. These findings are consistent with the equity-financinghypothesis and …

Factors Driving Financial Inclusion And Financial Performance In Fintech New Ventures: An Empirical Study, Miguel Angel Soriano

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Financial inclusion, or providing access to and active use of affordable financial products to the 2 billion unbanked adults globally, can facilitate individual prosperity, reduce poverty and increase economic development. Digital technologies such as mobile phones, cloud computing, data analytics and blockchain are one of the biggest enablers of financial inclusion by making it economically possible to serve these individuals. This dissertation examined the role of digital technologies in financial inclusion from the perspective of new financial technology (Fintech) ventures serving the unbanked and underbanked. Supported by strategy management theories, I identified key factors that impact the success of these …

Clogged Intermediation: Were Home Buyers Crowded Out?, Hyunsoo Choi, Hyun-Soo Choi, Jung-Eun Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Post-crisis policy interventions significantly increased the demand for mortgage refinancing, but could this surge in refinancing applications have crowded out the supply of credit to home buyers? In this paper, we examine two frictions that hamper financial intermediation and result in banks' substitution of home purchase loans for refinance loans: The risk capacity channel through which banks with limited risk appetites prefer safer loans over riskier loans, and the operating capacity channel through which banks with limited operating capacities prefer applications that require less screening time. We find that following the recent financial crisis, banks facing these capacity constraints indeed …

Hedge Fund Franchises, William Fung, David Hsieh, Narayan Y. Naik, Melvyn Teo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Duplicate, see https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/5964/. We investigate the growth strategies of hedge fund firms. We find that firms with successful first funds are able to launch follow-on funds that charge higher performance fees, set more onerous redemption terms, and attract greater inflows. Motivated by the aforementioned spillover effects, first funds outperform follow-on funds, after adjusting for risk. The multiple-product growth strategy hurts investors while benefiting hedge fund firms; multiple-product firms underperform single-product firms but harvest greater fee revenues. Investors respond to this growth strategy by redeeming from first funds of firms with follow-on funds that do poorly. Moreover, skilled investors allocate …

Clogged Intermediation: Were Home Buyers Crowded Out?, Hyunsoo Choi, Hyun-Soo Choi, Jung-Eun Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Post-crisis policy interventions significantly increased the demand for mortgage refinancing, but could this surge in refinancing applications have crowded out the supply of credit to home buyers? In this paper, we examine two frictions that hamper financial intermediation and result in banks' substitution of home purchase loans for refinance loans: The risk capacity channel through which banks with limited risk appetites prefer safer loans over riskier loans, and the operating capacity channel through which banks with limited operating capacities prefer applications that require less screening time. We find that following the recent financial crisis, banks facing these capacity constraints indeed …

Sell Side Benchmarks, Ohad Kadan, Leonardo Madureira, Rong Wang, Tzachi Zach

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Sell-side analysts employ different benchmarks when defining their stock recommendations. For example, a ‘buy’ for some brokers means the stock is expected to outperform its peers in the same sector (“sector benchmarkers”), while for other brokers it means the stock is expected to outperform the market (“market benchmarkers”), or just some absolute return (“total benchmarkers”). We explore the validity and implications of the adoption of these different benchmarks. Analysis of the relation between analysts’ recommendations and their long-term growth and earnings forecasts suggests that analysts indeed abide by their benchmarks: Sector benchmarkers rely less on across-industry information, and focus more …

The Chicago Plan: How Sustainable Is Debt Being Funded?, Deepika Deshpande

Asian Management Insights

The World Debt Clock is ticking away. The real problem is not how the debt is funded but whether it is sustainable.

Permanent Price Impact Asymmetry Of Trades With Institutional Constraints, Chiraphol N. Chiyachantana, Pankaj Jain, Christine Jiang, Vivek Sharma

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Dynamic institutional trading constraints related to capital, diversification, and short-selling asymmetrically affect the incorporation of new information as reflected in the permanent price impact of their trades. The sign of the permanent price impact asymmetry between institutional buys versus sells is positive at the initial stage of a price run-up and reverses due to changing constraints with a prolonged price run-up in a stock. Idiosyncratic volatility, analyst forecast dispersion, trading intensity, price dispersion, and bullish market conditions further sharpen the initial asymmetry, as well as its reversal after a price run-up.

The Flow Of Funds In Asean, Philip C. Zerrillo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In his novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden wrote, “Water can carve its way even through stone. And when trapped, water makes a new path.” Something similar seems to be happening with the flow of funds in ASEAN.