Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

South Burlington Vt: New Urbanist South Village, Jack Kartez, Richard Barringer

Planning

The 220 acre master plan for South Village, the largest project in the City of South Burlington’s history, encompasses multiple housing types and innovative provisions for affordable housing. It integrates housing with open space and natural resource conservation, including a major Community Supported Agriculture project developed by a nonprofit partner, the Intervale Foundation. While not a mixed-use project (that is, commercial as well as residential development), South Village nonetheless represents a qualitative change in approach for South Burlington by incorporating large-scale open space preservation as part of development and multiple housing-types in one project. The case study recounts events leading …

The Predictive Content Of Aggregate Analyst Recommendations, John S. Howe, Emre Unlu, Xuemin (Sterling) Yan

Department of Finance: Faculty Publications

Using more than 350,000 sell-side analyst recommendations from January 1994 to August 2006, this paper examines the predictive content of aggregate analyst recommendations. We find that changes in aggregate analyst recommendations forecast future market excess returns after controlling for macroeconomic variables that have been shown to influence market returns. Similarly, changes in industry-aggregated analyst recommendations predict future industry returns. Changes in aggregate analyst recommendations also predict one-quarter-ahead aggregate earnings growth. Overall, our results suggest that analyst recommendations contain market- and industry-level information about future returns and earnings.

Price Trends And Patterns In Technical Analysis: A Theoretical And Empirical Examination, Geoffrey C. Friesen, Paul Weller, Lee Dunham

Department of Finance: Faculty Publications

While many technical trading rules are based upon patterns in asset prices, we lack convincing explanations of how and why these patterns arise, and why trading rules based on technical analysis are profitable. This paper provides a model that explains the success of certain trading rules that are based on patterns in past prices. We point to the importance of confirmation bias, which has been shown to play a key role in other types of decision making. Traders who acquire information and trade on the basis of that information tend to bias their interpretation of subsequent information in the direction …

Market-Based Capabilities And Financial Performance Of Firms: Insights Into Marketing's Contribution To Firm Value, Sridhar N. Ramaswami, Rajendra K. Srivastava, Mukesh Bhargava

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While there is recognition that market-based capabilities contribute to a firm’s financial performance, the exposition is largely conceptual (Srivastava et al. Journal of Marketing 62:2–18, 1998; Journal of Marketing 63:168–179, 1999). Using a resource based view of the firm, the present study proposes that (1) market-based assets and capabilities of a firm impacts (2) performance in three market-facing business processes (new product development, supply-chain and customer management), which in turn, influence (3) the firm’s financial performance. It develops related hypotheses and tests the framework empirically. The study also examines for the first time the interrelationship among the three business processes …

Mission Statements: The Soul Of An Organization, Brian Johns

Honors Theses

When a culture is created or decisions are made, the presence of a viable mission statement is critical. This document can be used as a tool to create a business environment employees are attracted to, as a model for how decisions should be made, and is an image of who the company is and what it does. This paper looks to explore the makeup of a good mission statement through scholarly articles and research and the effect it has on corporate culture through real life examples of top companies in a variety of industries, supported by first-hand experience from the …

George Soros' New Paradigm For Financial Markets

Brigham Young University International Law & Management Review

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of A Methodology To Assess District Performance, Peter Simpson, Robert K. Gable, Stacey L. Kite

School Finance and Student Achievement

This study investigates a resource-based methodology to assess district performance as an indicator of student achievement on standardized assessments. The problem that this investigation addresses is that performance measurement and the associated decision-making is indeterminate. There is a lack of empirical research that relates decision-making about resource utilization to performance.

The study utilizes structuralism to assess the relationship between the independent variable of resource utilization and the dependent variable performance. Complex Adaptive System theory is used as a framework for Concept Mapping methodology. The study is grounded in theories from Complex Adaptive Systems and Microeconomics that state that performance is …

An Elusive Search For The Holy Grail Via Japan’S Lost Decade, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Why did the Wall Street crash of October 1929 cause the global economy to decline and stagnate over a long time? Till today, macroeconomists are still trying to answer what Ben Bernanke describes as the “Holy Grail” – an enlightened understanding of what went wrong. Richard Koo, author of “The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: Lessons from Japan’s Great Recession”, attempts an explanation with the “balance sheet recession” concept, based on his observations in Japan, where companies try to pay down their debt on time, if not earlier.

The Role Of The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention And Consumer Protection Act In The Real Estate Crisis, Sarah Maheu

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Psychology Of Money: Beyond Behavioral Finance, Cicily Maton, William Martin

College of Business Faculty and Staff Works

Behavioral finance has attracted the attention of both academics and practitioners. This article explores the roots of behavioral finance, psychology, and showns how these principles are actually used in practice.

Investigating The Persistence Of Hedge Fund Returns Over The Period Of 1998 To 2005, John Conway

Financial Analyst

No abstract provided.

Financial Planning For High School Students, Evan Weissman

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The global financial crisis of the early 21^st century has taught us many things about human nature, our societal goals and the finance industry overall. Perhaps the most surprising finding, however, has been the observance of financial illiteracy among the general public. The combination of greed and ignorance towards financial responsibility has played an important role in the collapse of our financial system.

The financial illiteracy of our society has been an epidemic in our country for some time. Financial planning is a topic that has been rarely taught in high schools. This has lead to an influx of …

Safe & Cheap, Moon Li, Brian Burrow

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Summary

Our project bundles investment research reports spanning the authors’ time in the Orange Value Fund (OVF), a student run hedge fund in the Whitman School of Management. Each report exemplifies the fund’s unique, bottoms-up investment style. In contrast to traditional valuation methods that focus exclusively on projecting company earnings, the OVF adopts a micro-level approach to analyzing investment opportunities. Analysts study company documents such as annual reports, credit agreements, and proxy statements to identify safe and cheap opportunities.

Safe

A safe company has access to capital markets, a super-strong financial position, honest and competent management, and an understandable business. …

Paul M. Klekner (B), Roger R. Schnorbus

Robins School of Business White Paper Series, 1980-2022

This is a fictitious case study, including the name of the restaurant and the people involved.

Paul Klekner graduated first in his class from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in 1998; his fellow students named him the chef most likely to succeed in the future. After graduation, he and his wife, Sarah, moved back to his home in Richmond, Virginia where he was employed as a chef at several restaurants including Bottega and Old Original Bookbinders. In 2003, he decided to open his own restaurant, Rogerios, in the Tobacco Row section of Richmond. With an inheritance of $300,000 he …

Dividend Policy, Creditor Rights, And The Agency Costs Of Debt, Paul Brockman, Emre Unlu

Department of Finance: Faculty Publications

We show that country-level creditor rights influence dividend policies around the world by establishing the balance of power between debt and equity claimants. Creditors demand and managers consent to a more restrictive payout policy as a substitute for weak creditor rights in an effort to minimize the firm’s agency costs of debt. Using a sample of 120,507 firm-years from 52 countries, we find that both the probability and amount of dividend payouts are significantly lower in countries with poor creditor rights. A reduction in the creditor rights index from its highest value to its lowest value implies a 41% reduction …

The U.S. Economic Crisis: Another "Lost Decade"?, Paula Chungsathaporn

Honors College Theses

America is experiencing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression originating with problems from mortgage backed securities and seeping into every major sector in the economy. We have witnessed the downfall or government takeover of some of the most powerful companies in the country, contributing to the highest unemployment rate America has seen in decades. During the 1990s, Japan experienced what is commonly referred to as “the lost decade,” a period of prolonged stagnant growth. Many similarities can be drawn between the current U.S. crisis and the Japanese crisis of the late 90s. The macroeconomic conditions that caused the …

Motivations For Us Foreign Direct Investment, Christina Buoninfante

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to determine US firms’ motivations for foreign direct investment and to explore to what extent US firms continue to invest into China and India. I first correlate the agricultural, industrial, and service sectors in the United States with those of China and India. I find that there is a positive relationship between the correlation of US sectors and the host country’s sectors and foreign direct investment into each sector. This supports the theory of Vernon’s product life cycle hypothesis, which explains that firms expand into lesser developed countries when their product becomes more sensitive …

Using High-Frequency Transaction Data To Estimate The Probability Of Informed Trading, Anthony S. Tay, Christopher Ting, Yiu Kuen Tse, Mitchell Warachka

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper applies the asymmetric autoregressive conditional duration (AACD) model of Bauwens and Giot (2003) to estimate the probability of informed trading (PIN) using irregularly spaced transaction data. We model trade direction (buy versus sell orders) and the duration between trades jointly. Unlike the Easley, Hvidkjaer, and O'Hara (2002) approach, which uses the aggregate numbers of daily buy and sell orders to estimate PIN, our methodology allows for interactions between consecutive buy-sell orders and accounts for the duration between trades and the volume of trade. We extend the Easley–Hvidkjaer–O'Hara framework by allowing the probabilities of good news and bad news …

Hype My Stock: Do Firms Really Want Biased Research?, Roger Loh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Analyst research is alleged to be biased because of conflicts of interest when analysts’ employers underwrite securities for the firms covered. I posit that affiliated analyst optimism should be the strongest for offering firms with a desire to over-inflate stock prices. I hypothesize that a firm’s corporate governance and its CEO incentives are related to the affiliation bias. Using stock recommendations data, I find evidence that the affiliation bias is indeed more pervasive for firms with high CEO wealth sensitivity to stock price (i.e., high CEO delta). The larger affiliation bias for high delta firms remains even after the introduction …

Institutional Trading Frictions, Chiraphol New Chiyachantana, Pankaj K. Jain

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose and empirically examine a comprehensive measure of institutional trading frictions to include the dimensions of price impact, quantity of execution, return dynamics, speed of execution or order splitting, and trading commissions. Our empirical analysis reveals that various hidden components of institutional trading frictions such as adverse selection and clean-up costs are persistent and could add significantly to previously measured directly observable components of transaction costs. Our simultaneous system of equations accounts for the endogeniety in institutional order aggressiveness based on potentially superior information as well as order splitting strategies in the implementation stage to reduce transaction costs. Order …

Residual State Ownership, Policy Stability And Financial Performance Following Strategic Decisions By Privatizing Telecoms, Paul M. Vaaler, Burkhard N. Schrage

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We question previous research assuming that privatizing firm performance generally benefits from decreasing state ownership and the passage of time, both of which purportedly align principal-agent incentives promoting organizational decision-making that increases shareholder value. When state ownership shifts from majority and controlling to minority and non-controlling, the performance impact may be positive in the short run, particularly where there is instability in the local investment policy environment. Consistent with this proposition, we develop and test hypotheses derived from a minority and non-controlling or residual state ownership framework, grounded in credible privatization and institutional theory. We propose that: (1) residual state …

Charity Fraud, Ann House

All Current Publications

This publication provides tips on how to protect yourself from scams and fraud.

The Cost Of Treating Addiction From The Client's Perspective: Results From A Multi-Modality Application Of The Client Datcap, Kathryn E. Mccollister, Michael T. French, Jeffrey M. Pyne, Brenda Booth, Richard Rapp, Carey Carr

Sociology Faculty Articles and Papers

There is a considerable disparity between the number of individuals who need substance abuse treatment and the number who actually receive it. This is partly due to the fact that many individuals with substance use disorders do not perceive a need for formal treatment. Another contributing factor, however, is a discrepancy between the real and perceived cost of services. Although many cost evaluations of substance abuse treatment have been conducted from the treatment provider perspective, less is known about the client-specific costs of attending treatment (e.g., lost work and leisure time, transportation, out-of-pocket and in-kind payments). Concerns about financial and …

Liquidity And Hedge Funds, Melvyn Teo

Research Collection BNP Paribas Hedge Fund Centre

Market liquidity profoundly impacts hedge funds. Funds trading illiquid securities earns significant risk premium, report smoother returns, can better leverage on information asymmetries, and grapple with stronger capacity constraints. Importantly, the funding liquidity of hedge funds, or their ease of obtaining financing, can have a significant effect on the market liquidity of the securities they trade in, creating a downward liquidity spiral during economic downturns. We review the academic literature and deliver insights that resonate with recent market events.

Does Supervisory Information Explain Security Market Information? Evidence From The Credit Default Swap Market, Timothy Buckler

Theses & Honors Papers

This paper examines the ability of supervisory information to explain variation in the Credit Default Swap Market. Using data from the fourth quarter of 2004 to the third quarter of 2008, variation in CDS was able to explained well using only Call Report Data. These Call Report data that are proxies for credit risk, leverage risk, and liquidity risk are found to be significant in at least one model. There is evidence of both omitted variables and heteroskedasticity in both models. Further work that controls for the movements in related markets, namely the equities market, and the use of Heteroskedasticity-consistent …

The Archway Investment Fund Semi Annual Report, April 2009, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of The Summer Olympics On Its Host City: The Costs Outweigh The Tangible Benefits, Steven Rosenblum

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

In the eyes of a host city, the reason to host the Summer Olympic Games has evolved from shining glory on athletic feats to receiving the perceived benefits from the opportunity. In the current times, there are a record number of Olympic events generating a demand for the construction of a larger amount of Games facilities than ever before. However, nations still vie for the winning bid to host the Olympics in one of their cities. This paper seeks to show that the costs of hosting the Games outweigh its tangible benefits. In detail, it will look at the financial, …

Performance Of Major League Baseball Players During Their “Free Agency” Season, Evan Konstantatos

Honors Projects in Finance

Do pro athletes try harder and perform better during their free agency year? Each year this question is asked in many professional sports. The purpose and objective of this project is to discover whether Major League Baseball players actually have better statistics during their free agency year. The result will add creditability to one side of the issue at hand. Data collected consists of offensive statistics in the year prior to their free agency year, their free agency year itself and the year after their free agency season. A simple paired T-test was applied for six major offensive categories: HR/AB, …

Indian Business Through Film, Collaborative Project

Dyson College- Seidenberg School of CSIS : Collaborative Projects and Presentations

This entry adheres to the use of the quad chart template to provide a succint description only of the current research project undertaken by the participants. It provides for the following information

1. Participants and Affiliations 2. Overall Project Goals 3. Illustrative picture 4. Specific research/artistic/pedagogic foci

The American Health Insurance System: What Went Wrong And How We May Fix It, Joseph Maxfield Vincent

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.