Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Esg News-Based Public Sentiment, Media Attention And Stock Price Crash Risk, Kesara Hewage, Subhash Abhayawansa, Mardy Chiah

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: This study aims to examine whether media-driven public perception of a firm’s environmental, social and governance performance (i.e. ESG news sentiment) and its media attention are associated with subsequent stock price crash risk. Using public sentiment formed from ESG news alone – separate from firms’ self-reported ESG performance – study investigates whether media-based ESG information provides incremental informational content about crash risk beyond disclosure-based ESG metrics.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors analyse more than 34, 000 semi-annual firm-level observations for US-listed firms from 2011 to 2021, using Refinitiv MarketPsych ESG sentiment and media attention data. They conduct cross-sectional and channel tests …

Labor Mobility, Managerial Evaluation Risk, And Corporate Performance Disclosures, Justin Hung Nguyen, Buhui Qiu, Cameron Truong

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study documents that managers of firms with greater labor mobility (LM) face higher personal evaluation risk (i.e., higher likelihood of performance-driven forced turnover), especially among firms with more transparent performance disclosures. Moreover, managers of high-LM firms tend to adopt lower-quality performance disclosures (i.e., lower financial statement readability, earnings quality, and accounting conservatism) to mitigate their personal evaluation risk. The effect of LM on performance disclosure quality is stronger for firms whose managers are more concerned about personal evaluation risk, but is weaker for firms headquartered in states that restrain mobility. Finally, low-quality disclosures by high-LM firms attract a valuation …

The Nevada Innovation Economy And Federal Funding, Len Jessup, Sean Curry

Policy Briefs and Reports

This policy brief examines the nascent Nevada innovation economy and the funding capacity of the federal government. The analysis highlights how federal innovation programs have stimulated research, commercialization, and long-term economic development in Nevada. Using a multi-level framework encompassing technological, industrial, and spatial innovation, this policy brief documents how federal research funding, augmented by state programs and university infrastructure, has contributed to the formation of new research capabilities, seeded industry clusters and startups, and expanded workforce capacity. The findings suggest that federal resources have been productively deployed to date, generating significant scientific, economic, and social returns, but that more must …

Ledger Of Bills Payable , Receivable, Expenses (1853, 1854, 1855), Lagrange College

Documents

A ledger of bills payable to LaGrange College, an early predecessor of the University of North Alabama, from the years 1853-1855.

The Law Of General Average, Luca Anderlini, Joshua C. Teitelbaum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Part of a ship’s cargo is jettisoned in order to save the vessel and the remaining cargo from imminent peril. How should the loss be shared among the cargo owners? The law of general average, an ancient principle of maritime law, prescribes that the owners share the loss proportionally according to the respective values of their cargo. We analyze whether the law of general average is a truthful and efficient mechanism. That is, we investigate whether it induces truthful reporting of cargo values and yields a Pareto efficient allocation in equilibrium. We show that the law of general average is …

Adjusting To Extreme Demand Volatility: A Comparative Analysis Of Air Navigation Service Provider Financial Resilience In The Southern Asia-Pacific, Margaret Arblaster, Gui Lohmann

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Air navigation service providers fund their operations almost entirely through activity-based user charges, creating a structural dependency between revenue and air traffic volume. When traffic collapses, revenue falls immediately, but the cost base, dominated by specialised labour under fixed-term employment contracts and long-lived capital infrastructure, adjusts slowly, if at all. This paper examines how five corporatised, wholly government-owned air navigation service providers in the southern Asia-Pacific (i.e., Airservices Australia, Airways New Zealand, AirNav Indonesia, NiuSky Pacific in Papua New Guinea, and Fiji Airports) responded to the extreme demand shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and assesses the role of government grants …

Bank Competition Amid Digital Disruption: Implications For Financial Inclusion, Erica Xuewei Jiang, Gloria Yang Yu, Jinyuan Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine how digital disruption affects bank competition using the staggered rollout of 3G mobile networks. 3G expansion increased mobile banking adoption among tech-savvy households, reducing branch networks—especially in younger counties. Banks' strategies diverged: Less branch-reliant banks closed branches and competed on price, while more branch-reliant banks maintained branches but raised spreads. A structural model shows that perceived digital service improvements among younger consumers drove these shifts, reducing welfare for older savers. Counterfactuals demonstrate that subsidizing adoption for older savers can cost-effectively reduce these disparities, facilitating a smoother digital transition.

Most Affordable And Fastest-Growing Cities In The Mountain West, 2026, Cason Noll, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Cities & Metros

This fact sheet presents data on the most affordable and fastest-growing cities among the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The data are sourced from MoneyLion’s “50 Most Affordable, Fastest-Growing Cities” report, which analyzed and ranked U.S. cities by the most affordable places with large population growth. This fact sheet focuses on the 10 Mountain West cities that ranked within the top 50 and their corresponding 5-year population growth rate, median household income, annual cost of living for both homeowners and renters, and the leftover savings available at the end of the year for …

Deep Analysis In Excel Without Vba: Creating Transparent Portable User-Defined Functions With =Lambda, Tom Arnold, Timothy Falcon Crack

Finance Faculty Publications

Please note that this paper has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Wealth Management and hence only the abstract is currently available here.

You can exploit your current knowledge of Excel's formula language to build customized Excel functions. These user-defined functions are so fast and transparent that they may be useful for validating AI answers or replacing them altogether. You can now use loops that previously required VBA or JavaScript. The functions use Excel's new =LAMBDA and =MAKEARRAY functions. You can assign personalized names to functions and their input variables, and they are portable between Workbooks. We present …

Creating User-Defined Financial Statement Analysis Functions In Excel, Tom Arnold, Xia (Summer) Liu, Cassandra D. Marshall

Finance Faculty Publications

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Using Excel’s =LAMBDA and =MAKEARRAY functions, user-defined functions are created to generate (1) sets of ratios covering net working capital, DuPont analysis, and leverage, and (2) a set of related cash flow calculations.

Computing and presenting related ratios and cash flows as a unified set allows for more efficient financial statement analysis.

User-defined functions can be copied from a referenced source file into any new spreadsheet, allowing immediate use in the new file because all associated programming is transferred.

Settlement Manipulation In Prediction Markets, David Dai, Ruizhe Jia, Shihao Yu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Prediction markets increasingly list contracts settling on an asset price that holders can move by trading the underlying. We build a model showing that such contracts transfer wealth from prediction-market liquidity traders to manipulators and harm price discovery in the underlying, even as it becomes more liquid. After the launch of Polymarket's five-minute Bitcoin contract, settlement-time spot order flow spikes, causing large price reversals after settlement. Manipulators capture a large amount of profit, mostly from retail. Manipulation is largely absent in the fifteen-minute contracts: lengthening the contract horizon removes it, providing the market-design remedy our model and evidence support.

Queuing Uncertainty Of Limit Orders, Bart Yueshen Zhou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Limit orders submitted around the same time are subject to random latencies and will be queued accordingly. In equilibrium, end-of-queue limit orders always lose money—the liquidity supply appears excessive. The model generates empirical predictions regarding such “overshooting” liquidity: (i) new limit orders appear fleeting—clustered submissions are followed by immediate cancellations, (ii) the resulting cancel-to-add count ratio reflects adverse selection, and (iii) the cancel-to-add size ratio measures high-frequency market-making activity. Welfare can be hurt by the overshooting liquidity if it induces excessive speculation. Overall, the model contributes to a more comprehensive understanding and better utilization of order book data.

An Integrated Analytics Model For Evaluating Strategic Investments Under Volatile Conditions, Atul Chandra, R. Hartley

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Strategic projects are exposed to multiple uncertainties within a competitive environment that result in trade-off between two decisions, early investment that pre-empts competitors versus delay to allow resolution of uncertainties. Unlike the binary net present value (NPV) based decision to invest or abandon now, our multiple volatility real option games approach (MVR games) frames strategic investment decisions as a dynamic process for future options. It is a decision tree framework that computes and analyses strategic net present value (SNPV) using four MVR games modules and decision making. SNPV combines NPV with two offsetting real option and strategic values. Real option …

Investment Decision Making, Muhammad Yaseen, Di Wu

Open Educational Resources

A newly established commercial bank, founded in 2021, has accumulated excess capital reserves. The bank is evaluating long-term investment options to deploy this capital in a way that balances growth and risk. The investment committee is considering two primary strategies: investing in a diversified technology-focused ETF, QQQ, or investing directly in selected individual technology stocks.

The bank's senior management wants capital growth, but it also needs to manage risk exposure. A bank cannot treat an investment decision only as a search for the highest return. It must also consider volatility, concentration risk, liquidity, downside periods, and whether the strategy fits …

Credit Card Analysis, Di Wu

Open Educational Resources

A credit card business unit at a bank is facing a retention problem. More customers are leaving the bank's credit card services, and the retention manager wants to identify which customers are most likely to churn so the bank can intervene before the account is lost.

The bank has customer demographic, relationship, and transaction data for more than 10,000 credit card customers. The data includes age, gender, education, income category, card category, months on book, customer inactivity, contact frequency, credit limit, revolving balance, transaction amount, transaction count, and whether the customer attrited.

You are a business analyst on the bank's …

Generating A Bond Option Binomial Tree Model In Excel, Tom Arnold, C. Mitchell Conover, Joseph Farizo, Nancy Tran

Finance Faculty Publications

We demonstrate how to adjust the Katolay, Williams, and Fabozzi (1993) binomial tree model for pricing option-embedded bonds to have separate binomial trees for the forward rate process and for the component bond prices (actual bond prices or derived from a yield curve).  This reduces computational complexity at a given node within a single binomial tree.  Further, the calibration method is performed on “spine” values for the forward rate binomial tree, which is more consistent with the actual forward rates that are utilized as initial values in the calibration process.  The entire model is produced in Excel and uses new …

Do Complex Models Matter? Evidence From Multiclass Machine Learning Models In Credit Outlook Prediction, Rashmi Malhotra, Davinder K. Malhotra, Robert Nydick, Nathan Coates

College of Business Faculty Papers

This research explores whether boosting model complexity enhances the forecasting of corporate financial outlook in a multiclass credit outlook setup. Instead of viewing distress as simply a yes-or-no result, companies are divided into negative, neutral, and positive outlook categories to better reflect shifting credit conditions. The study evaluates a parametric baseline against several nonlinear classifiers—including ensemble, kernel-based, and similarity-driven approaches—while applying a consistent validation process and statistical testing. On average, nonlinear models outperform the linear specification in terms of out-of-sample accuracy and provide more homogeneous classification across the three outlook categories. Importantly, they substantially improve the identification of firms with …

The Impact Of Sovereign Wealth Funds On Emerging Markets: A Behavioral Analysis Of Investment Decisions And Market Reactions, Grant A. Mosshart

Senior Honors Theses

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are increasingly influential in emerging markets, yet the behavioral drivers behind their investments remain underexplored. In this paper, an analysis of SWF capital’s impact on economic development and the psychological factors, such as optimism bias and herding, that shape these decisions is examined. Utilizing a mixed-methods comparative study, the research analyzes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings. Event study analysis reveals a divergent impact: the PIF’s high-profile developmental commitment to India generated a positive 5-day Cumulative Abnormal Return of +2.05%, confirming a macro-level “seal of approval” signaling effect. By contrast, Temasek’s commercially …

Economic Perspectives On Medical Training: A Specialty-Level Break-Even Analysis For Wayne Trained Physicians, Michael Niculcea, Joseph Kunnappilly, Isaak Miller, Connor Genschaw, Biola Makinde-Odusola

Medical Student Research Symposium

Title:

Economic Perspectives on Medical Training: A Specialty-Level Break-Even Analysis for Wayne Trained Physicians

Michael Niculcea, Joseph Kunnappilly, Isaak Miller, Connor Genschaw, Biola Makinde-Odusola

Background:

U.S. medical students graduate with high educational debt, yet financial literacy remains overlooked in medical school curricula. Trainees enter residency with a limited understanding of how specialty and loan repayment strategies affect long-term finances. Break-even analysis, which identifies when total revenue exactly offsets total costs, can help students at Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSUSOM) better visualize the factors shaping their financial futures.

Methods:

This analysis assumes 4 years of medical school financed entirely …

Key Determinants Of Diamond Value, Tobey Brill, Alexander Dobrovolskyi, Rayland Labayog

Undergraduate Economics Working Paper Series

This paper intends to examine the determinants of diamond pricing using a hedonic regression framework. Using the diamonds dataset from Wickham (2016), we analyze the four C’s, also known as carat weight, cut, color, and clarity. We also wanted to go deeper into this topic and look into the depth and table to see how it impacts diamond pricing. Results have displayed that carat weight greatly influences a diamond’s price, while characteristics such as clarity, color, and cut exert positive effects. Estimates were found to be statistically significant. Our findings confirm and reassure the idea that hedonic pricing accurately captures …

Simple Determinants Of Commercial Bank Failures, Matthrew Qi

Undergraduate Economics Working Paper Series

This study investigates the internal and macroeconomic determinants of commercial banking failures in the United States spanning 1959 to 2025. Using a logit model and a four-quarter lag, two models are estimated: a comprehensive model (1985–2025) and an extended panel model (1960–2025). Empirical results reveal internal CAMELS metrics are primary determinants of survival; profitability and capital adequacy defends against failures, while asset quality deterioration and management inefficiencies accelerates failure. The “too big to fail” paradigm is empirically validated. Contractionary monetary policy and labor market stress increase failure probabilities. Real GDP growth exhibits a role shift predicting commercial bank failures.

Las Vegas Casino Revenue In An Expanding Gambling Market, Kaden A. Villa-Real

Undergraduate Economics Working Paper Series

This study examines whether expanding gambling substitutes disrupt the Las Vegas gambling industry using quarterly data from 2014 through 2025. Las Vegas casino revenue is used as the benchmark to gauge the health of Las Vegas, adjusted to Quarter 1 2014 dollars and using an OLS regression model. The results imply that online sports betting is a poor substitute for Las Vegas revenue, while online gambling shows a positive and statistically significant relationship with revenue. The findings indicate that Las Vegas is resilient despite the introduction of more competition and gambling alternatives within an industry it has traditionally known to …

Gambling Behaviors: How Do Gambling Losses Affect Future Wagers?, Ashley Talavera, Hannah Lopez Ibarra, Roman Rozbitskyy

Undergraduate Economics Working Paper Series

This study looks at how previous gambling losses affect future betting behavior in online cryptocurrency gambling markets. Using roughly 50,000 real betting observations from Bustabit, the paper tests whether gamblers become more aggressive after losses or instead pull back and bet more cautiously. Using both OLS and Fixed Effects regression models, the results show that players generally reduce their wager sizes following losses rather than engage in strong loss-chasing behavior. After controlling for individual player tendencies, the Fixed Effects models show statistically significant decreases in future bet sizes after losses, suggesting that caution and loss aversion may play a larger …

Early-Term Abortion Bans And Sex Selection After Dobbs V Jackson, William Jergins, Xin Liang Brown

Faculty Scholarship

Following the 2022 US Supreme Court decision Dobbs v Jackson, many states adopted early-term abortion (ETA) bans that prohibit abortions before the age of viability and often before sex determination is technologically feasible. We analyze the effect of ETA bans on the sex ratio at birth among first-generation Chinese, Korean, and Indian (CKI) immigrants using difference-in-differences and triple differences methodolo- gies. While our estimates across higher parity children sometimes indicate a decrease in the sex ratio at birth, they are also generally small and statistically insignificant, which is consistent with continued access to sex selection under ETA bans. In contrast, …

The Impact Of Financial Literacy On Young Adults, Ellie Katherine Prince

Senior Honors Theses

This literature review examines the impact of financial literacy on tax knowledge among college students, emphasizing how limited financial education contributes to broader financial instability. Research consistently shows that young adults from ages eighteen to twenty-five possess low levels of financial literacy, which leads to poor budgeting, inadequate retirement planning, risky consumer behavior, and increased financial stress as they transition into adulthood. Studies involving national financial literacy assessments, workplace performance data, and college-level surveys highlight the long-term consequences of insufficient financial education, especially for vulnerable demographic groups. Notably, the review identifies a strong connection between financial literacy and overall financial …

Diversification For Stock Markets: Commodities Or Crypto, Mico Apostolov, Simone Domenico Scagnelli, Lorenzo Vasile

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The question that an asset could serve as a good store of value has been brought up a number of times, especially due to major market shocks. Despite the long-held belief that gold serves as a safe haven, a growing body of contemporary literature perpetually assesses this notion. Whether cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin as the most well-known of them, as an asset, can serve as a safe haven or hedge gains traction in research. This study investigates the relationship of gold and Bitcoin to S&P 500 stock index and the possibility that these might serve as a safe haven in respect …

Herding In Artificial Intelligence, John Cotter

Honors Scholar Theses

This paper examines whether increased attention to artificial intelligence (AI) influences herding behavior in financial markets. As AI has become a dominant theme in both financial markets and public discourse, understanding how investor attention affects behavior has become increasingly important. Herding behavior is measured using the Cross-Sectional Absolute Deviation (CSAD) methodology developed by Chang, Cheng, and Khorana (2000). The analysis uses daily data from December 2019 through November 2025 and focuses on the Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (AIQ) as a proxy for the AI sector. Investor attention is measured using a composite Google Search Volume Index (SVI) …

Project Foresight Annual Report, 2024-2025, Paul J. Speaker

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Project FORESIGHT is a business-guided self-evaluation of forensic science laboratories across the globe. The participating laboratories represent local, regional, state, and national agencies. Economics, accounting, finance, and forensic faculty provide assistance, guidance, and analysis. Laboratories participating in Project FORESIGHT have developed standardized definitions for metrics to evaluate work processes, linking financial information to work tasks and functions. Laboratory managers can then assess resource allocations, efficiencies, and value of services—the mission of Project FORESIGHT is to measure, preserve what works, and change what does not.

The benchmark data for the 2024-2025 performance period includes laboratory submissions for a variety of fiscal …

Too Big To Fail Or Built To Survive? Government Intervention And Corporate Resilience In The Global Automotive Industry During The 2007–2009 Financial Crisis, Reagan A. Waurishuk

Honors Scholar Theses

The 2007-2009 financial crisis displayed how many industries lacked sustainability during times of market volatility. It revealed structural vulnerabilities, especially in the global automotive industry. This case study and analysis intend to examine why certain major automakers were able to survive the crisis without bankruptcy, such as Ford, Toyota, Honda, and BMW AG, while other competitors required company-wide restructuring and government assistance. This research investigates the extent and timing of government support. It also investigates the influence of these loans on firm rebound rates and whether the companies that were provided with aid were prioritized based on size or weakness. …

Discounted Cash Flow Valuation Of Ethiopian Airlines Group: Country Risk, Currency Volatility, And Soe Dynamics In An Emerging Market Context, Rediet Wale Yirga

2026 Spring Honors Capstones Projects

This study presents a discounted cash flow valuation of Ethiopian Airlines Group, a state-owned enterprise in sub-Saharan Africa's largest aviation market. No published academic study has applied rigorous quantitative valuation to the airline within an emerging market framework. This research addresses that gap by constructing a multi scenario DCF model using audited financial data from FY2019/20 through FY2023/24, with projections through FY2029/30. The model incorporates a country risk premium using Damodaran's methodology and accounts for ETB/USD depreciation following Ethiopia's 2024 exchange rate liberalization. Sensitivity analysis identifies exchange rate volatility, fuel costs, and discount rate as primary drivers of enterprise value …