Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

A Funding Challenge For Charities: Getting The Right Mix, Yew Kee Ho, Gregory Tan

Social Space

The current financial crisis has sparked many new challenges for charities with regards to the inflow of charity dollars. Ho Yew Kee and Gregory Tan examine current income sources of 37 institutions of public character (IPCs) in Singapore and urge charities to revisit their current funding mix.

The Case Against Exempting Smaller Reporting Companies From Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404: Why Market-Based Solutions Are Likely To Harm Ordinary Investors, John Orcutt

Law Faculty Scholarship

Section 404 is arguably the most controversial provision of Sarbanes-Oxley (“SOX”). The controversy focuses on whether Section 404’s substantial compliance costs exceed the statute’s benefits, with no consensus on Section 404’s cost-effectiveness. If Section 404 turns out to be cost-ineffective, the companies that are most threatened are smaller companies, as cost-ineffective regulations tend to disproportionately harm smaller companies. This Article considers whether Congress and the SEC should exempt smaller reporting companies from Section 404 compliance, as that would allow for a market-based resolution to the uncertain value of Section 404 for smaller reporting companies. Smaller reporting companies would be relieved …

Intertemporal Relations Between Stock Indices-Correlation Analysis For The Stock Markets Of The United States, England, And Singapore, Michael Nabil Razzouk

Theses Digitization Project

This research study examines the relationships between various equity markets throughout the world. In this study, returns from the Chicago Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange and the Singapore Stock Exchange are compared and analyzed to see if correlations between the markets exist.

The Impact Of Stock Split Announcements On Stock Price: A Test Of Market Efficiency, Carlos Garcia De Andoain

Theses & Honors Papers

The purpose of this study is to test whether the investor can make an above normal return by relying on public information impounded in a stock split announcement. Using risk adjusted event study methodology, this study tests "how" and "when" public announcements of forward and reverse stock splits affect stock price. Stock split announcement samples include 38 two for one, 39 three for two, and 10 reverse splits. A total o f 36,714 observations for the announcement samples and the corresponding S&P 500 stock index were analyzed using standard risk adjusted event study methodology. Results suggest that the firms' public …

Using Peer Grading And Proofreading To Ratchet Student Expectations In Preparing Accounting Cases, Laura R. Ingraham, B. A. Chaney

Faculty Publications

Accounting educators struggle with ways to incorporate the development of critical thinking and communication skills into the curriculum. Case analysis is one tool for developing these skills. We examine whether students’ case analysis scores improve as a result of participation in peer grading and peer review. We find that students improve their ability to perform case analyses after both evaluating and being evaluated by student peers. Students initially experience an Expectation Ratcheting learning effect after evaluating the case of a peer. Subsequently, students experience an Enhanced Feedback learning effect from the comments and suggestions made by the peers who evaluated …

Ethical And Faith-Based Investments: An Assessment Of Performance, Hisar Joel Munte

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this thesis will explore the risk and return characteristics of socially responsible investing by comparing three indices, the Domini 400 Social Index (DS400 Index.), the KLD Catholic Values 400 Index (CV400 Index), and the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIMI). The second objective of the thesis is to contrast the three Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Indices with the Standard and Poor's 500 index (SP500). In a bid to meet investor demands, mutual fund managers have developed un-conventional portfolios that factor in ethics, sustainability, social, religious and environmental factors that affect returns.

Ua30/1/2 Planning, Design & Construction Building File, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created during the construction and renovation of buildings at WKU.

Exploring A New Financial Paradigm In Social Investment, Arthur R. Wood

Social Space

The business sector can be more involved in financing the work of the social sector. Arthur R. Wood makes his case through the sanitation issue and shares Ashoka’s plans in paving the way for more collaboration between the social and business sectors.

Quantitative Evaluation On Indigent Criminal Defense Funding, Ralph E. Mckinney, Lawrence P. Shao

Management Faculty Research

This article takes a quantitative approach to build upon McKinney and Shao's (2008) qualitative contribution concerning resource a/location of indigent criminal defense programs. By compating public funds of multiple societies over time, we are able to add important knowledge surrounding property rights valuations using a new concept called GDP Indexed Purchasing Power Parity. The findings of this study show that GDP-PPP provides for better indigent criminal defense analysis than per capita figures.

Accounting Conservatism In International Financial Reporting Standards And U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Hang Minh Pham

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

During the past five years, the number of US. citizens who own foreign securities has increased by thirty percent. This trend has led to the need for a uniform accounting system that would increase the comparability and consistency of financial statements across countries in the world. Today, over 100 countries have adopted International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as their primary accounting system. The European Union required the use of IFRS in 2005. In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission is considering the adoption of IFRS in 2014. IFRS and U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are different in many …

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

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

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

Year-End And Quarter-End Effects In The Term Structure Of Sterling Repo And Eurepo Rates, Mark D. Griffiths, Vladimir Kotomin, Drew B. Winters

Faculty Publications – Finance, Insurance, and Law

Griffiths and Winters (1997) find a year-end preferred habitat for liquidity for US repo rates, and, later, Griffiths and Winters (2005) find a similar preferred habitat for US money market instruments. Kotomin et al. (2008) document the preferred habitat in LIBOR for the major world currencies, excluding the British pound. We examine the robustness of these results using pound sterling and euro repo rates and find a year-end preferred habitat for liquidity in the euro repo rates. The British interest rates continue to behave differently, and we provide a possible explanation as to why this occurs.

Price Discovery Of Credit Risk, Yibing Du

Finance and Real Estate Dissertations - Archive

This study investigates financial markets' price discovery for credit risk across the stock, bond, and credit derivatives markets. This study also examined what factors affect financial market's price discovery for credit risk. Four factors are studied: liquidity, transaction cost, credit ratings and maturities. Using weekly equity, bond and credit default swap market data from January 2000 to October 2007, it is found that stock market and bond market, credit derivative market and bond market are cointegrated for long term credit risk price discovery. In short term, both stock market and credit derivatives market lead the bond market for credit risk …

Going Green - Impact On Residential Property Values, Ramya Rajajagadeesan Aroul

Finance and Real Estate Theses - Archive

Hedonic pricing model is generally used to empirically understand the relationship between various housing characteristics and the housing values. In the past hedonic studies have looked at the relationship between the housing prices and structural features, environmental amenities, neighborhood characteristics, time variables and even financing. But real estate researchers have greatly overlooked to study the impact of greenness on residential properties though there has been a huge interest among the researchers and practitioners on green buildings. This study poses the primary question of if any potential relationship exists between greenness and property values. This study further extends the research question …

The Association Between Data Intermediaries And Bond Rating Classification Model Prediction Accuracy, Pavani Tallapally

Doctoral Dissertations

Kamstra et al. (2001) developed a bond rating classification model that was based on a similar model developed by Ederington (1985). While both studies use Moody's bond ratings as dependent variables, the studies differ with respect to the independent variable data source, that is, Kamstra et al. (2001) use financial statement data extracted from Moody's Industrial Manual (now known as Mergent) while Ederington (1985) uses financial statement data extracted from Compustat. Given this, and given the divergent results of the two studies, the following question must be addressed: Do different data sources yield models that differ considerably with respect to …

An Analysis Of The Intra-Regional Trade In The Middle East And North Africa Region, E. M. Ekanayake, John R. Ledgerwood

Publications

This paper analyzes the intra-regional trade and investment flows in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using an augmented gravity model applied to panel data. The study uses annual trade and investment data for the period 1980-2006. There is a growing awareness among countries in the MENA region regarding the importance of international trade and foreign direct investment for stimulating growth and integrating into the world economy. The research will attempt to achieve the following objectives: (a) analyze the intra-regional trade and investment flows in the MENA region; (b) identify the major determinants of trade and investment flows …

Chicago Islamic Microfinance Project, Karen Ahmed, Cynthia Shawamreh

College of Business Faculty and Staff Works

No abstract provided.

Where Is Islamic Finance Going? Ethical Investment Strategies, Karen Ahmed

College of Business Faculty and Staff Works

No abstract provided.

What Does Islamic Finance Want To Be When It Grows Up?, Karen Ahmed

College of Business Faculty and Staff Works

No abstract provided.

"Islamic Banking And Finance: Moral Beliefs And Business Practices At Work", Karen Ahmed

College of Business Faculty and Staff Works

The religion of Islam has existed for 1400 years but Islamic economic theory and its financial institutions emerged as an industry only in the 1970s. Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) are designed to help Muslims conduct business internationally while simultaneously upholding traditional Islamic values related to trade finance and currency movement. The basis for their existence is the Islamic moral prohibition on charging interest—interest is a central component of capitalist banking—yet IFIs conduct billions of dollars of business annually in the world economy and the de facto Islamic banking transaction is—in most cases—virtually identical to a capitalist banking transaction. Business practices …

Learning Style Differences Between Students And Facultyo Title, Thomas Berry, Amber Settle

College of Business Faculty and Staff Works

Learning styles refers to the different ways that people process and retain information. Our interest is in discerning differences in learning styles between faculty and students. Just as students vary in learning styles, instructors differ in the methods they use to convey information. Any disconnect between the learning styles of instructors (and hence the methods used to teach material) and the predominant learning styles of the students may result in greater learning difficulties for students. We test the learning styles of three groups: students in the introductory finance course, finance majors, and finance faculty. Significant differences are found between each …

Reit Ipos And The Cost Of Going Public, Steven D. Dolvin, Mark Pyles

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

We examine Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) that went public between 1986 and 2004. Consistent with previous studies, we find that REIT IPOs are associated with lower levels of underpricing relative to traditional issues. We also find that REITs are associated with smaller file price revisions. Both findings are potentially attributable to the lower level of uncertainty associated with pricing REITs. In contrast, using an alternative measure of issuance costs that incorporates the share retention decision by preexisting owners, we find no significant difference between REIT and non-REIT issues, suggesting the results of previous studies …

The Rise Of Private Equity Media Ownership In The United States: A Public Interest Perspective, Matthew Crain

Publications and Research

This article examines the logic, scope, and implications of the influx of private equity takeovers in the United States media sector in the last decade. The strategies and aims of private equity firms are explained in the context of the financial landscape that has allowed them to flourish; their aggressive expansion into media ownership is outlined in detail. Particular attention is paid to the public interest concerns raised by private equity media ownership relating to the frenzied nature of the buyout market, profit maximization strategies, and the heavy debt burdens imposed on acquired firms. The article concludes with discussion of …

The Importance Of Police Performance As A Determinant Of Satisfaction With Police, James E. Larsen, John P. Blair

Finance and Financial Services Faculty Publication

Problem statement: Citizen satisfaction with police performance is an important concern of public managers because police performance is central to citizens and accounts for a large share of urban budgets. Also, there is substantial disagreement in the literature regarding determents of citizen satisfaction.

Approach: Logistic regression was used to investigate the results of three public opinion surveys, conducted biannually, to identify determinants of citizen satisfaction with police.

Results: The explanatory power of the models was indicated by concordance of over .80. The findings indicated that satisfaction was largely determined by citizen perception of police behaviors. Four variables reflecting perceptions of …

New Algorithms For Optimal Portfolio Selection, Tanja Magoc

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Over the past four thousand years, numerous techniques have been developed and used to address problems in Finance. These techniques include simple arithmetic calculations and probabilistic methods as well as intelligent systems techniques such as neural networks, genetic algorithms, multi-agent systems, and support vector machines. The techniques have been developed to accurately and quickly collect, validate, analyze, and integrate data that change dynamically.

The particular problem that we address in this Dissertation is the construction of efficient algorithms for the problem of an optimal portfolio selection, that is, algorithms that would accurately and in real time determine the best distribution …

Crummer/Suntrust Portfolio: Analysis And Recommendations [2009], Troy Mcclell, Victor Genev, Justin Fitch, Tyler Tedrow, Tim Russell, Abigail Martin, Greg Gabowski, Kate Bauernschmidt, Lander Iriarte, Arif Somji, Joe Volpe, Bessie Newman, Danny Gardner, Renaldo Lama, Grant Mccaghren

Crummer Truist Portfolios

The first consideration was determining the amount of risk that should be taken. At present, the portfolio has a defensive position, guarding against a turbulent economy. However, as the portfolio trades only once a year, the question facing the team was when the market will rebound. If we believe the market will rebound between now and May, 2010, it would be prudent to position the portfolio more aggressively than it is currently allocated. Conversely, if the market remains uncertain, continuing a defensive position is sensible. The determination of the team was to take a more aggressive position than the portfolio …

Reinforcement Learning And Savings Behavior, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, Andrew Metrick

Faculty Publications

We show that individual investors over-extrapolate from their personal experience when making savings decisions. Investors who experience particularly rewarding outcomes from 401(k) saving—a high average and/or low variance return—increase their 401(k) savings rate more than investors who have less rewarding experiences. This finding is not driven by aggregate time-series shocks, income effects, rational learning about investing skill, investor fixed effects, or time-varying investor-level heterogeneity that is correlated with portfolio allocations to stock, bond, and cash asset classes. We discuss implications for the equity premium puzzle and interventions aimed at improving household financial outcomes.

Three Essays On The Interest Rate Forward-Futures Differential 1. Empirical Investigation Of The Size And The Nature Of The Eurodollar Futures-Foward Differential 2. Decomposition Of The Interest Rate Forward-Futures Price Differential 3. How Much Premium Is There For Interest Rate Futures?, Andrei Shynkevich

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes a series of issues that surround both the theoretical modeling and the empirical estimation of the forward-futures differential, commonly known as the convexity adjustment. Opposite to theoretical implication, I find that the magnitude of the forward-futures rate differential is much smaller than what was expected, and that its sign is negative on many occasions. Neither asynchronicity bias, nor the unconventional feature of the Eurodollar futures pricing can explain the observed phenomena. The term structure interpolation error and the two business day lag between the fixing (settlement) date and the transaction (value) date to which the implied forward …

Essays On Management Quality, Ipo Characteristics And The Success Of Business Combinations, Haksoon Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) is a blank check company with no business operation but management quality. It raises money through unit IPO and put proceeds in a trust account for future business combination. In the post IPO market, the market price would reflect the value of trust account and management quality of profitably acquiring a firm with business operation. Thus, SPACs provide a unique setting to examine the pricing of management quality. Compared with regular IPO firms, SPAC management has more industry experience and the market put a higher value for SPACs with better management experience. SPACs with …

The Financing And Reform Of The United States Healthcare System, Sarah Georgeau Bernheisel

Honors Theses

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, approximately forty-five million people in the United States, including nearly nine million children, were without health insurance in 2007 ("Fast Stats A to Z" 1). Additionally, in 2007, nearly 30% of young adults, ages 18-24, in the United States were uninsured ("Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage" 22). Sadly, none of these figures includes the countless individuals who have insufficient healthcare coverage caused by their high out-of pocket costs compared to their wages.