Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Discussion Of The Potential Of Blockchain In Finance, Andrew Kincaid

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper analyzes the current application of blockchain technology to demonstrate its disruptive potential has across different financial industries. This paper analyzes the potential difficulties that blockchain technology must face and overcome to realize this potential. Blockchain is currently in a stage in its development where there has not been enough research done to provide empirical answers to its benefits or added costs; however, there have been many early innovations that have helped propel blockchain forward. Blockchain in corporate finance is primarily used in corporate governance where blockchain has the ability to increase transparency and reduce possible corruption. Blockchain has …

Potential Consequences Of U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission’S Replacement Of The Quarterly Reporting Requirement For Semi-Annual Reporting, Mengchen Zhou

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study extends the discussion of potential consequences of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s replacement of the quarterly reporting requirement for semi-annual reporting. This research summarizes the perspectives about quarterly and semi-annual reporting from reporters, critics, business executives and academic researchers, analyzes the influential parties from changing reporting regulation, and provides detailed explanation about potential impacts. Five parties are related to the replacement of the quarterly reporting requirement, including corporations, investors, analysts, auditors and Trump Administration. This research concludes that the auditor will be the least influential party and corporations will be the most impacted party.

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

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 …

Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Retirement Plans, Hunter Rhea

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

In my research, I’ve compared the cost and benefits of defined benefit and defined contribution plans consisting of 401(k)s, IRAs, 403(b)s, and S&P 500 ETFs. A model was used to forecast future value of plans at retirement based on years till maturity, contribution amounts, and plan type. Based on the results, it’s beneficial for an individual to invest in a diversified mix of retirement plans to reduce the risk associated with one plan. The future value of each plan witnessed a direct increase in value for an increase in contribution amount and years till plan maturity.

A Comparative Analysis Of Personal Financial Literacy, Connor Davey

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a comparative analysis of the financial state of modern American college graduates to similar groups of graduates. From this comparative analysis, we can see which aspects of Personal Financial Literacy need to be emphasized to achieve success as a new college graduate. First, a comparison was made between modern American graduates and American graduates from Generation X. It was found that modern graduates have just slightly more student loan debt than Gen X graduates, despite having significantly higher tuition rates. This debt amount, over time, would not be a huge concern for …

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 …

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 …

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.

Assessing The Current Efficiencies Of Farm Credit Of Western Arkansas, Hailey Paulsen

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

Farm Credit is a unique banking structure, as it is a cooperative which pays patronage dividends to its members. As such, the rates for loans (nominal interest rates) that Farm Credit offers can be slightly higher than larger commercial banks because the patronage payment can offset some, all or more of interest rate difference, which results in an effective rate. Farm Credit, like other globally evolving industries, must continuously look for ways to differentiate themselves to compete for new customers and retain existing ones. Thus, this study sets out to survey the members of Western Farm Credit of Arkansas to …

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

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

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 …

Hedging In Energy: The Case Of Linn Energy, Llc, Riley E. Nelson

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper is a case study of LINN Energy, LLC over the period of Q1 2013 to Q4 2015. Due to volatility in commodity prices, energy companies choose to hedge their future production using forwards, futures, swaps, and options strategies. I selected LINN Energy as the subject for this study due to the breadth of detailed historical hedging information available through the company’s website. LINN Energy disclosed much more than is required for independent oil and gas companies, making them the perfect case study for this thesis. LINN Energy, LLC is one of the few publicly traded LLC’s and is …

Outperforming The S&P 500 Using Top-Down Asset Allocation, Benjamin Lanier

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper investigates whether portfolio managers can outperform the S&P 500 index using top-down asset allocation, using historical returns, standard deviations, and correlations of different asset classes. Efficient diversification between asset classes reduces the idiosyncratic risk by selecting assets from a wide variety of different classes of assets in different parts of the world. The goal is to create an optimization model that makes it possible for a portfolio manager to generate higher expected returns, while taking risk equal to that of the S&P 500, or incur lower risk while generating the same expected return of the S&P 500.

The Fall Of Petrobras And Its Impact On The Brazilian Economy, Nicolas Lema Severich

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper investigates the full scope of the poor decisions made by the Brazilian oil giant, Petroleo Brasileiro. This paper is focused on the midst of a corruption scandal that ended the hopes and dreams of an entire nation. Fundamental analysis as well as technical analysis are used to determine the intrinsic value of Petrobras. Petroleo Brasileiro is analyzed as an oil company, as a mother company for the Brazilian economy and as the disruptor of a recession that will be remembered historically.

The Overlap Of Cross Sectional And Time Series Momentum Strategies, Samuel Adams

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper contributes to existing literature by providing an analysis of combined time series momentum and cross sectional momentum strategies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average from February, 1991 to December, 2015. Combined momentum strategies are shown to not outperform cross sectional momentum strategies, and all momentum strategies tested are shown to under perform the market index. The twelve month historical return serves as the foundation from which the momentum strategies are formulated. Holding periods discussed in this paper include portfolio’s offset by one month from the historical return calculations . Momentum results during the time period analyzed are driven …

The Financial Stability Of Nonprofit Organizations, Heather M. Blalack

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

This thesis evaluates the financial stability of nonprofit organizations and their ability to effectively facilitate the accounting functions of a business. Specifically, it focuses on the companies’ ability to maintain steady cash flow and fulfill all financial obligations while also achieving commitments stated in the company’s mission statement and core values. In addition, this analysis concentrates on the immense lack of knowledge and experience pertaining to financial management within many nonprofits as well as the scarcity of related trainings. As most administrators of nonprofits lack the proper training or background pertaining to financial oversight, there is often an imbalance …

Strategic Asset Allocation For Fixed Income And Fixed Income-Like Securities In Anticipation Of A Bear Market, Ngoc B. Phan

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

In a market contraction, it is often beneficial to actively manage fixed income and fixed income-like portfolio via strategic asset allocation. Many fixed income securities tend to outperform equities during market contractions owing to their fixed payment streams, lower volatility, and higher position in capital structure. This study seeks to estimate a set of optimal asset allocation portfolios in anticipation of recessions empirically using historic inflation-adjusted data. I apply mean-variance optimization to find optimal portfolio mix, discuss investors of different risk levels and discuss performance of portfolios in growth, recession and long-term periods.

The Millennial Investor: Mutual Funds Versus Exchange Traded Funds, Terrell Mclendon

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research paper seeks to understand the Millennial investor. The distinct purpose of this research is to determine if Millennials in the U.S., specifically those ages 25 to 35, prefer investing in exchange traded funds to mutual funds. Additionally, this research seeks to discern if these Millennials prefer investing online to working with a personal financial advisor. Secondary research was utilized extensively to compile a review of existing literature on the topics of the Millennial generation, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, personal financial brokers, and online investing sites. Primary research was completed through a questionnaire survey to gather new data …

Effect Of Automated Advising Platforms On The Financial Advising Market, Benjamin Faubion

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis outlines the cost to investor differences between a traditional financial advisor and the growing group of highly competitive automated Robo-Advisors.

Do Investors Value The Required Stress Tests Of Financial Holding Companies?, Brendan A. Colligan

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper explores the value of disclosing stress test results to investors and market participants within the US financial system. Recently the Federal Reserve (“Fed”) expanded its required internal stress testing program, often referred to as the Dodd-Frank Act Stress Test (“DFAST”), to include bank holding companies (“BHCs”) with more than $10 billion in total assets. These BHCs were required to publicly disclose their results for the first time in June of 2015. Large BHCs are subject to another level of stress testing implemented by the Comprehensive Capital Analysis Review (“CCAR”). Large BHCs are defined as having more than $50 …

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 …

Correlation Between Shareholder Concentration And Firm Performance With Regard To Midcap Companies, Wynn Lemmons

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The research herein explores the correlation between performance and shareholder concentration. This paper compares the performance of a group of companies with a single shareholder stake of over 10% from the universe of the S&P 400 Midcap Index to the performance of the index itself over a period of eight years (January 1, 2009 to January 1, 2016). When run as a simulated portfolio, the group selected generated a slight amount of positive alpha, but the results were ultimately statistically insignificant.

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 …