Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Real Exchange Rates Over The Past Two Centuries: How Important Is The Harrod-Balassa-Samuelson Effect?, James R. Lothian, Mark P. Taylor

CRIF Working Paper series

Using data for 1820-2001 for the US, the UK and France, we test for the presence of real effects on the equilibrium real exchange rate (the Harrod-Balassa-Samuelson, HBS effect) in an explicitly nonlinear framework and allowing for shifts in real exchange rate volatility. A statistically significant HBS effect for sterling-dollar captures its long-run trend and explains some 40% of its variation. For both real exchange rates there is significant evidence of nonlinear mean reversion towards long-run equilibrium and downwards shifts in volatility corresponding closely to the classical gold standard and Bretton Woods periods.

Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Foreign Exchange Risk Management Practices Of Microfinance Institution, Peter R. Crabb

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Foreign exchange risk remains a significant problem for microfinance institutions (MFIs). Many sources of potential funding for MFIs remain untapped due to the high risks of currency devaluation faced by these funding sources. Specifically, debt capital is available for MFIs but foreign exchange risk is a potential deterrent. This paper reviews current practices in the management of foreign exchange risk for and by MFIs. The advantages and disadvantages of these practices are discussed and alternative practices proposed.

Vol. 06 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Microfinance Programs On Children's Education: Do The Gender Of The Borrower And The Delivery Model Matter?, Nathalie Holvoet

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This article highlights the effects particular features of microfinance programs have on childhood education. Using data from a South India household survey, the article examines how microfinance impacts schooling and literacy, how credit enters the household, and who brings it in. Regression results show that, in the case of direct bank-borrower credit delivery, it does not matter whether credit enters the household through the mother or the father. However, large differences occur when mothers obtain credit through women's groups. Analysis indicates that combined financial and social-group intermediation leads to higher educational inputs and outputs, mainly for girls. Individual interviewis with …

The Experience Of Financial Institutions In The Delivery Of Microcredit In The Philippines, Maria Abigail Carpio

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This paper identifies the characteristic features of the different financial market players involved in the delivery of microcredit in the Philippines and looks into their experiences in addressing the credit demand of the small-borrower market segment, particularly the microenterprise sector. This paper argues that each group of lenders, specifically commercial banks, rural banks, credit-granting NGOs, and an apex financial institution, allocates its funds by establishing its own criteria for assessing the creditworthiness of borrowers and its own mechanisms to avoid borrower default. The delivery of microcredit takes place within an environment where the different financial market players face their own …

The Transformation Of The Microfinance Sector In India: Experiences, Options, And Future, M. S. Siriaram, Rajesh S. Upadhyayula

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This paper discusses the growth and transformation of microfinance organizations (MFO) in India. Issues that have triggered transformation include size, diversity, sustainability, focus, and taxation. Transformation experiences in India are few. To move to the mainstream, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) choose from three popular forms of organizations: non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), banks, and cooperatives. It appears that there is no ideal path for spin-off. Regulatory changes are needed to allow MFOs to graduate to other legal forms as they grow organically. NGOs must be permitted to invest in the equity of MFOs, as is the case in Bolivia and Africa. Norms …

Realizing Mission Objectives: A Promising Approach To Measuring The Social Performance Of Microfinance Institutions, Katarzyna Pawlak, Michal Matul

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This paper proposes a new approach for measuring the social performance of microfinance institutions. The key to developing sustainable social performance measurement (SPM) systems and practices is to consider their design from the perspective of the organizational mission. The fact that the SPM system is built on the organizational mission ensures its cost-effectiveness and facilitates its institutionalization. It not only stimulates an MFI to verify the fulfilment of its social mission and to innovate in the search for optimal solutions to address development needs in a given intervention context, but it also can improve its financial condition through client segmentation …

Microleasing: The Grameen Bank Experience, Asif Dowla

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Grameen Bank was the first microfinance institution (MFI) to introduce microleasing on a large scale. This paper provides a preliminary evaluation of Grameen's leasing program. Instead of providing a full-fledged impact assessment study, we examine the terms and conditions of the leasing program and evaluate its success in terms of outreach, repayment rate, and asset ownership.Analysis of program level data shows that the program is successful in terms of outreach and repayment performance. Through the program, poor men and women have become owners of power tillers, power looms, shallow machines, cellular phones, and even computers. The success of leasing suggests …

Scoring Arrears At A Microlender In Bolivia, Mark Schreiner

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Can scoring models help microlenders in poor countries as much as they have helped credit-card lenders in rich countries? This paper presents a scorecard that predicts the probability that loans from a microlender in Bolivia will have arrears of 15 days or more. Although arrears in microfinance depend on many factors difficult to include in scorecards, the paper shows that inexpensive, simple-to-collect data does have some predictive power. In micro-finance, scoring will not replace loan officers, but it can flag high-risk cases and act as a cross-check on loan officers' judgment.

Inside Unlv, Erin O'Donnell, Carol C. Harter, Diane Russell, Jennifer Vaughan

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Investing When Volatility Fluctuates, Leping Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

Penny Pricing And The Components Of Spread And Depth Changes, David K. Ding, K.H. Chuang, C. Chearoenwong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Recent studies show that decimal pricing led to significant reductions in the spread and depth on the NYSE. In this paper, we examine how the observed changes in the spread and depth can be attributed to different factors. We show that stocks with higher proportions of one-tick spreads and odd-sixteenth quotes, and more frequent trading before decimalization experienced larger declines in the spread and depth afterwards. We interpret this result as evidence of reduced binding constraints and increased price competition under decimal pricing. We also find that decimal pricing led to nontrivial changes in select stock attributes, and that these …

Using The Wacc To Value Real Options, Tom Arnold, Timothy Falcon Crack

Finance Faculty Publications

We present a real option valuation using the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). This is an alternative to risk-neutral real option valuation. Using the WACC involves a marginal increase in mathematical complexity, but it is easy to implement in a spreadsheet, and it is easy to present to management. Our analysis reveals, however, that because the real option valuation is immune to choices of admissible discount rates (as per Arnold and Crack 2003a), the critical issue is correct estimation of volatility, not choice of discount rate. We also point out that the natural and conservative tendency to overestimate risk …

International Joint Ventures And Political Risk, Sundaram Janakiramanan, Lamba Asjeet S.

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In recent years, a number of researchers have examined the existence and source of shareholder wealth effects around announcements of international joint ventures. The results of these studies are mixed with no clear answers as to when and why investors attach value to firms using joint ventures to enter overseas markets. In this context, we examine the shareholder wealth effects for 92 international joint venture announcements made by Australian firms during June 1988 - December 1997. We find that, on average, shareholders of firms announcing joint ventures realize an abnormal return of +1.65% over the two-day announcement period of days …

Style Effects In The Cross-Section Of Stock Returns, Melvyn Teo, Sung-Jun Woo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Using CRSP stock and mutual fund data, we find strong evidence for reversals at the style level (e.g., large value, small growth, etc.). There are significant excess and risk-adjusted returns for stocks in styles characterized by the worst past returns and net inflows. We also find evidence for momentum and positive feedback trading at the style level. These value and momentum effects are driven neither by fundamental risk nor by stock-level reversals and momentum. Taken together, the results are consistent with the style-level positive feedback trading model of Barberis and Shleifer (2003).

The Impact Of Regulation Fair Disclosure On Information Asymmetry And Trading: An Intraday Analysis, Chiraphol N. Chiyachantana, Christine X. Jiang, Nareerat Taechapiroontong, Robert A. Wood

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines the impact of Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) on liquidity, information asymmetry, and institutional and retail investors trading behavior. Our main findings suggest three conclusions. First, Regulation FD has been effective in improving liquidity and in decreasing the level of information asymmetry. Second, retail trading activity increases dramatically after earnings announcements but there is a significant decline in institutional trading surrounding earnings announcements, particularly in the pre‐announcement period. Last, the decline in information asymmetry around earnings announcements is closely associated with a lower participation rate in the pre‐announcement period and more active trading of retail investors after earnings …

2004-2005 Revised Operating Budget: Southern University And A & M College, Southern University System. Office Of Finance & Administration.

All Southern University System Budgets

The 2004-2005 Operating Budget for the Southern University and A & M College Campus. Revised 10/2004.

The Dynamics Of Market Entry: The Effects Of Mergers And Acquisitions On Entry In The Banking Industry, Allen N. Berger, Seth D. Bonime, Lawrence G. Goldberg, Lawrence J. White

Faculty Publications

We study the dynamics of market entry following mergers and acquisitions (M&As) using banking industry data. The findings suggest that M&As are associated with statistically and economically significant increases in the probability of entry. The data suggest that M&As affect the proportion of the markets with entry by about 10-20%. These findings also suggest that entry may be part of an "external" effect of M&As that helps supply credit to some relationship-dependent small business borrowers. Our results are robust to the use of alternative econometric methods, changes in specifications of the exogenous variables, and alteration of the data samples.

Interest Rate Parity In Excel, Tom Arnold, Bonnie Buchanan

Finance Faculty Publications

This paper develops interest rate parity in a framework that is easily implemented in Excel. The student can either be given the paper to see how the code is developed using the intuition of the interest rate parity framework or the student can be taught the interest rate parity framework and develop the Excel code as an assignment. Using either teaching method or the other exercises suggested in the paper, the student is able to understand how traders exploit violations of interest parity and become more comfortable with basic concepts, such as direct quotes and indirect quotes.

Prospect Theory, Analyst Forecast, And Stock Returns, David K. Ding, Charlie Charoenwong, Raymond Seetoh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper documents how prospect theory can be used to explain stock returns and analysts' forecast behavior. Positive earnings surprises are associated with increases in abnormal returns but negative earnings surprises have only a limited negative impact on returns. We find that analysts display asymmetric behavior towards positive and negative earnings growth. Analysts' forecasts are found to be accurate during periods of positive earnings growth, but overly optimistic during periods of negative earnings growth. Our findings have implications for the structuring of investment products, as well as the role of market timing in their introduction.

U. S. Competitiveness In The Global Financial Services Industry, Lawrence G. Franko

Financial Services Forum Publications

The World Trade Center Towers: they were the headquarters of Morgan Stanley, one of the world’s leading investment banks, and of Cantor Fitzgerald, the world’s leading trader of U.S. government bonds. They were also the work location of 9,000 Merrill Lynch employees. The Citicorp Building. The Prudential Tower. The New York Stock Exchange. These actual and recently uncovered potential terrorist targets in the United States are financial services companies and organizations. Add to them the threats to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and one could conclude that seven out of ten terrorists prefer financial services.

This focus …

Investing In Hedge Funds: Risks, Returns And Performance Measurement, Francis Koh, Winston T. H. Koh, David K. C. Lee, Kok Fai Phoon

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Hedge funds are collective investment vehicles that are often established with a special legal status that allows their investment managers a free hand to use derivatives, short sell, and exploit leverage to raise returns and cushion risk. We review various issues relating to the investment in hedge funds, which have become popular with high net-worth individuals and institutional investors, as well as discuss their empirical risk and return profiles. The concerns regarding the empirical measurements are highlighted, and meaningful analytical methods are proposed to provide greater risk transparency in performance reporting. We also discuss the development of the hedge fund …

The Contribution Of A Satellite Market To Price Discovery: Evidence From The Singapore Exchange, Vicentiu Covrig, David K. Ding, Buen Sin Low

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The Singapore Exchange (SGX), a small satellite market, successfully competes with a large home market, the Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE), in trading the Nikkei 225 futures index. In this paper, we investigate the contribution of the SGX to price discovery and shed light on the reasons for its continued success. Evidence is provided from information revelation and price discovery of three competing but informationally linked markets of the Nikkei 225 index - domestic spot (Tokyo Stock Exchange), domestic futures (OSE), and foreign futures (SGX), which represents the satellite market. Overall, the futures market contributes 77% to price discovery, with the …

House Prices And Fundamental Value, John Krainer, Chi Shen Wei

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The performance of the residential housing market over the last ten years has been remarkable. According to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), house prices have appreciated at an annual rate of 5.4% on average (68.9% over the whole time period). Perhaps even more remarkable is that the performance was strong even when economic activity overall was weak. Average annual appreciation rates have been 7.4% (26% in total) since the collapse of the Nasdaq in 2000 and 7.1% (20% in total) since 2001:Q1, the beginning of the 2001 recession. In contrast, since the start of the 2001 recession, …

Membership On Editorial Boards And Rankings Of Schools With International Business Orientation, Kam C. Chan, Hung-Gay Fung Dr., Pikki Lai

GFCB Working Paper Series

Using four-year data (1990, 1994, 1998, and 2002), we have provided a ranking of schools with international business (IB) orientation based on the membership on editorial boards of 30 leading international business journals. Participation on editorial boards of quality journals is highly selective, and should provide a quality indication of the schools. Both quality unadjusted and adjusted board membership based ranking are calculated in this study. Several interesting findings are worth noting. First, U.S. schools play a significant leadership role among the leading IB programs. Second, the findings of this study also show the major contribution of non-U.S. schools, which …

Managing Unmanageable Physicians: Leadership, Stewardship, And Disruptive Behavior, Tim Keogh, William Martin

College of Business Faculty and Staff Works

Physician and health care leaders are seeking guidance and support on how to address disruptive behavior that has an impact on safety, quality, and performance. This article equips leaders with a model and process to prevent and address disruptive behavior.

The Economy And Demand For Finance Ph.D.S: 1989-2001, David K. Ding, Sheng-Syan Chen

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We investigate the demand for new finance Ph.D.s from 1989 to 2001. Three categories of schools (Top 20, Top 21-50, and Other Finance Departments) are explored and the differences between private and public institutions are reported. The demand for assistant professors is the greatest and most institutions require an earned Ph.D. While most do not specify the position type, there is some evidence that tenure-tracked ones are on the rise. The most desired areas of expertise are corporate/business finance, investments, and bank management/financial markets and institutions. The total demand is positively related to the Gross Domestic Product and Dow Jones.

Testing Market Efficiency Using Statistical Arbitrage With Applications To Momentum And Value Strategies, Steve Hogan, Robert Jarrow, Melvyn Teo, Mitchell Warachka

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper introduces the concept of statistical arbitrage, a long horizon trading opportunity that generates a riskless profit and is designed to exploit persistent anomalies. Statistical arbitrage circumvents the joint hypothesis dilemma of traditional market efficiency tests because its definition is independent of any equilibrium model and its existence is incompatible with market efficiency. We provide a methodology to test for statistical arbitrage and then empirically investigate whether momentum and value trading strategies constitute statistical arbitrage opportunities. Despite adjusting for transaction costs, the influence of small stocks, margin requirements, liquidity buffers for the marking-to-market of short-sales, and higher borrowing rates, …

Risk, Return And Risk Aversion: A Behavioral Rendition, Hian Ann, Christopher Ting

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Behavioral finance and classical finance based on utility maximization appear to be mutually exclusive schools of thought. Despite the fundamental difference, we show that behavioral finance also has a linear relation between risk and return. This relation is obtained without the assumptions of market equilibrium, rational expectations, a specific utility function and the market portfolio. In the behavioral approach, the pricing error of CAPM is not an error. It is attributable to the higher-order moments of return. Empirical tests suggest that the relative risk aversion coefficient is positive and time-varying. Moreover, it correlates negatively with both volatility and return.