Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Taca, Pedro Raventos, Mauricio A. Melgarejo

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

The airline industry is energy intensive, has high fixed costs and its demand is very sensitive to the economic cycle. After the industry worldwide undergoes deregulation, starting with the United States in 1978, two distinct business models develop. Traditional carriers operate hub and spoke networks, offer onboard service and engage in price discrimination, whereas low cost carriers operate point to point, charge for all services and have simple tariffs. TACA begins operations in Central America in 1931 and, by 1943, has a footprint that extends from the United States to Argentina. In 1998–2001 TACA faces increased competition and a significant …

Event Risk : Three Essays Exploring Nonprofit Organizations' Finances After The September 11 Attacks, Santiago Guerrero

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The three essays of this dissertation explore the experience of nonprofit organizations after the September 11 attacks to gain a better understanding of one specific type of risk nonprofit organizations face— “event risk” — which I broadly define as the risk of a negative impact on the operations of a nonprofit organization as a result of unexpected events. Essay One finds that overall nonprofit sector revenues were not reduced after the September 11 attacks and identifies characteristics of the revenue mix that make nonprofit organizations less susceptible to event risk. Essay Two identifies characteristics of nonprofit organizations’ financial conditions that …

Mutual Funds’ Soft Dollar Arrangements: Determinants, Impact On Shareholder Wealth, And Relation To Governance, Yaman Ö. Erzurumlu, Vladimir Kotomin

Faculty Publications – Finance, Insurance, and Law

Mutual fund advisers either expense the cost of research and other services or pay for them with soft dollars. This study is the first to use actual soft dollar and total brokerage commission figures for a large number of funds and to examine how soft dollars are linked to mutual fund governance. Employing a survivorship bias-free sample of actively managed US mutual funds, we find that higher soft dollar and total brokerage commissions are associated with higher advisory fees but not with higher risk-adjusted fund returns. These findings suggest that mutual fund shareholders, on average, do not benefit from the …

Determinants Of Industrial Property Rents In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, David E. Clark, Anthony Pennington-Cross

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

Urban economists have long understood the theoretical importance of transportation infrastructure and accessibility on the location choice of households and firms. We utilize a readily available data set of transaction rents in the Chicago metropolitan area to investigate the determinants of industrial property rents. Among the factors considered are proximity to transportation infrastructure, characteristics of the property, the term structure of lease agreements, and local attributes of the neighborhood. Empirical results suggest property, lease, and local demographics play important roles in determining rents. Despite the fact that industrial property tends to locate very close to rail lines and interstate highways, …

The Price Is Book-Built: The Decision To Use Book-Building Pricing Mechanisms For Ipos In The Philippines, Gabriel A. Ayala

CMC Senior Theses

In 1998, the Philippines introduced book-building pricing mechanisms for Initial Public Offerings. Almost all capital raised through IPOs in the Philippines is done using a book-building pricing method, however a significant number of IPOs still occur using non-book-building methods. Understanding why book-building has become the dominant pricing mechanism but yet non-book-building methods still survive is the aim of this paper. I find that unlike other countries where the introduction of book-building leads to higher total issue costs for individual issuers and unlike theory which suggests the increased effort of book-building should come with increased costs, IPOs that use book-built pricing …

Understanding The Global In Global Finance And Regulation, Lawrence G. Baxter

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Keynote Address, Regulating Corporate Governance In The Public Interest: The Case Of Systemic Risk, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

There’s long been a debate whether corporate governance law should require some duty to the public. The accepted wisdom is not to require such a duty—that corporate profit maximization provides jobs and other public benefits that exceed any harm. This is especially true, the argument goes, because imposing specific regulatory requirements and making certain actions illegal or tortious can mitigate the harm without unduly impairing corporate wealth production. Whether that is true in other contexts, this paper—delivered as the keynote address at the June 2016 National Business Law Scholars Conference at The University of Chicago Law School—questions if it’s true …

Automatically Defined Templates For Improved Prediction Of Non-Stationary, Nonlinear Time Series In Genetic Programming, David Moskowitz

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Soft methods of artificial intelligence are often used in the prediction of non-deterministic time series that cannot be modeled using standard econometric methods. These series, such as occur in finance, often undergo changes to their underlying data generation process resulting in inaccurate approximations or requiring additional human judgment and input in the process, hindering the potential for automated solutions.

Genetic programming (GP) is a class of nature-inspired algorithms that aims to evolve a population of computer programs to solve a target problem. GP has been applied to time series prediction in finance and other domains. However, most GP-based approaches to …

Sunlight Bylaws And Reciprocal Disclosures, Grace Lee Mead

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Publicly-traded companies have the power to pass sunlight bylaws to address hedge fund activism. Sunlight bylaws would require activist hedge funds to publicly disclose any strategic proposals and their financial interests in companies earlier and at thresholds lower than current securities laws. Sunlight bylaws would also require disclosure of additional information, including: (1) the percentage of the fund’s portfolio invested in the company; (2) the fund manager’s compensation; (3) the fund manager’s investment in the fund; (4) the fund’s portfolio turnover; and (5) the fund’s prior holding periods after any announcements of an ownership interest and a strategic proposal. Academic …

The Effects Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Financial Performance, Marly Mentor

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Companies have taken the initiative to be socially responsible over the years. In the past, the focus for companies has been on maximizing wealth. With the growth of corporate social responsibility (CSR), there has been many debates regarding its benefits. More companies are beginning to realize the value of being socially responsible and how critical it is to business function. This paper researches past studies on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance. This relationship is then tested using a reliable source of data on corporate social responsibility performance. This study uniquely looks at the accounting and market-based …

Crummer Suntrust Portfolio Recommendations: Crummer Investment Management [2016], David Daubert, Shawn Draheim, Jeremy Gerbauer, Brett Gourlay, Martin Kronberg, David Kumar, Devin Mccreary, Hugh Mcmillan V, Nathan Morgan, Jerry Schuster, Jordan Anduaga-Todd

Crummer Truist Portfolios

The most notable aspect of our strategy is an increase in bond holdings to 18% — the top of the range permitted by our investment policy statement. This defensive position assumes bonds will be low risk in a year of gently rising interest rates and because we see little upside in the stock market. For our tactical allocation, we added sector ETFs to each of our sectors to ensure diversification within sectors and limited the individual names to three per sector, allowing for more selectivity and in-depth research. We have tilted the portfolio towards consumer discretionary, consumer staples and telecommunications, …

The Effect Of A Risk-Based Deposit Insurance Program In Korea, Youngil Oh

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Countries introduce a deposit insurance system to prevent bank-run and stabilize the financial market by protecting depositors. However, deposit insurance with a flat-rate system induces the insured banks to take more risky activities, an example of moral hazard. To deal with this problem, the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation ('KDIC') adopted a Risk-Based Insurance Program ('RBIP ') for the Savings Banks ('SBs') on July 1, 2013, by charging a higher rate for the weak SB s and a lower rate for the healthy SBs. To mitigate the initial drastic impact on the SBs in an economic regression, the KDIC had reduced …

He Said , She Said: The Rcbc Money Laundering Scandal, Leveric T. Ng

Graduate School of Business Publications

The ongoing RCBC money laundering investigation has evidently become a topic of conversation from New York to Singapore…….That should come as no surprise given the magnitude of the crime, but unfortunately not many people here seem to have grasped yet just how damaging this is to the country. The sad reality is that the all-too-typical way this scandal is being addressed only serves to camouflage the relatively simple, broad facts of the case, and almost certainly won’t lead to the swift decisive solutions the country needs to implement to avoid becoming a financial pariah.” (Ben Kritz, Manila Times March 18, …

A Study On How Mobile Banking Has Affected The Banking Industry: Has Mobile Banking Improved Bank Performance?, Courtney Elizabeth Cleveland

Honors Theses

This paper explores the effect of mobile banking on the banking industry. It further seeks to investigate if banks improve financial performance as well as customer conversion and retention due to mobile banking. The research sifts through early entries in mobile banking features, data transfer technology evolution along with hand-held mobile device advances. Population demographics are also reviewed to understand which segment is more inclined to use mobile banking applications, giving banks insights and analytics for focused advertising. Data security needs and bank personnel skills evaluation show a shift in personnel skill-set evolution from historical employees. Overall, the data suggests …

A Background And Chronological Take On High Frequency Trading, Quinn H. Murray

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze, in context of high frequency trading, potential market manipulation techniques (i.e. market making arbitrage, statistical arbitrage, market structure arbitrage, and directional strategies), and to review the subject from a chronological perspective from the 1960s onward, covering topics not limited to Regulation National Market System, the flash crash of May 6, 2010, and the August 24, 2015 market crash. To date, high frequency trading's effects on the United States market place have been well documented. This thesis will speculate about the true nature—whether adverse or beneficial-- of this fascinating, evolutionary, highly scrutinized topic.

A Quantitative Analysis Of Financial Literacy At The University Of Mississippi, Paul Jackson Gunn

Honors Theses

This thesis examines why financial literacy is important and what factors can influence students' financial literacy at the University of Mississippi. Financial literacy is important and can affect many aspects of life, whether it is political, financial, educational or personal. Students enrolled in EDHE 105 participated in the multiple-choice survey, which included socioeconomic, demographic and financial literacy questions. Participants' answers were analyzed using four statistical models: ordinary least squares regression, univariate analysis or means by differences analysis, interactions and probit analysis. The study found that the average score, 2.02 out of five, to the financial literacy quiz for all participants …

A Sustainability-Based Project Selection Algorithm: Socio-Technical-Economic Project Selection (Steps) Algorithm, Bharathi Bhattu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Multi-dimensional aspects play a vital role in the task of project-decision making. Environmental effects are to be considered in addition to other technical and non-technical aspects in order to avoid undue environmental damage. This current work introduces a new decision-making algorithm (Socio-Technical-Economic Project Selection or STEPS) that is demonstrated with the use of RCA (recycled concrete aggregate) as riprap for slope stabilization and erosion control which leaches chemical arsenic when in contact with water. Arsenic has long been recognized for its lethal properties. The main intention of introducing this new algorithm is to use sustainability concepts of social, technical, and …

Seeking Personal Financial Understanding For College Students, Nathan Webel

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

With the cost of college increasing it is critical that students develop sound a sound financial understanding of key topics that will effect them for the rest of their lives. Budgeting, interest rates, debt, and other key topics are not well understood by the majority of college students. This paper looks at how much students understand their debt, as well as other key finance areas and demonstrates what The University of Akron can do to produce students that understand personal finance concepts.

Brokers And Investment Advisors, Nathaniel Phillip Graham

Theses and Dissertations--Finance and Quantitative Methods

Brokers and investment advisors are a large and important part of the financial industry. Using a novel data set that includes the majority of the financial advisory industry, in this dissertation I document the size of the financial advisory industry and the prevalence of customer complaints in the industry, which I use as a proxy for misconduct. I then test for two potential drivers of advisors’ misconduct: professional standards in the form of fiduciary responsibilities and influence from social networks. I find that variation in fiduciary duties—specifically fiduciary versus suitability standards— does not appear to affect advisors’ propensity for misconduct. …

Conduit Bond Financing Of Local Governments—Perspective From The U.S. And China, Zihe Guo

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

As an alternative way to issue bonds, conduit financing has been widely used by local governments and nonprofit organizations. Conduit financing allows one entity to issue debt on behalf of single or multiple borrowers. In the state of California in the U.S., a local agency is allowed to issue municipal bonds in compliance with law, but can also borrow through a joint powers agency (JPA). In this case, the JPA serves as a conduit. Conduit financing is preferred by local agencies in certain circumstances because it is more convenient or fixed issuance costs can be split between several conduit borrowers …

The Influence Of Operational Resources And Activities On Indirect Personnel Costs: A Multilevel Modeling Approach, Bradley C. Boehmke, Alan W. Johnson, Edward D. White, Jeffery D. Weir, Mark A. Gallagher

Faculty Publications

Indirect activities often represent an underemphasized, yet significant, contributing source of costs for organizations. In order to manage indirect costs, organizations must understand how these costs behave relative to changes in operational resources and activities. This is of particular interest to the Air Force and its sister services, because recent and projected reductions in defense spending are forcing reductions in their operational variables, and insufficient research exists to help them understand how this may influence indirect costs. Furthermore, although academic research on indirect costs has advanced the knowledge behind the modeling and behavior of indirect costs, significant gaps in the …

The Benefits Of Having A Comprehensive Financial Plan For The Average Consumer, And The Necessary Components Comprised To Make An Effective And Efficient Plan, Nicholas M. Lund

CMC Senior Theses

Socioeconomic changes in American society over the past few decades, as well as an overwhelming amount of uncertainty and misconceptions, have resulted in a majority of Americans to fall short of their financial goals in the short-term, the mid-term, and the long-term. Without proper preparation and financial planning, it is likely that these Americans, and many more, will be unable to reach these goals as well as retire comfortably. Many Americans are overwhelmed with the immense amount of financial information, tools and resources, and as a consequence are unable to plan their finances efficiently and effectively. Americans need a better …

Three Essays On Asset Pricing In Security And Housing Markets, Minrong Zheng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In my first essay, I investigate the relationship between IPO long-run underperformance (Ritter, 1991) and the idiosyncratic risk puzzle (Ang, Hodrick, Xing and Zhang, 2006), the phenomenon of abnormally low returns for stocks with high idiosyncratic risk. I show that IPO long-run underperformance is in fact a manifestation of the surprisingly low returns for high idiosyncratic risk stocks. IPO underperformance disappears after I control for the idiosyncratic risk. Specifically, the underperformance of IPO firms only presents following the months in which they are classified into the highest idiosyncratic risk quintile. On the other hand, I find that the idiosyncratic risk …

Tobacco And Cannabis: The Evolution Of Pertinent Rules And Regulations And Subsequent Financial Ramifications, Palmer Avisto

Honors Theses

My thesis will discuss the evolution of the regulations surrounding tobacco and cannabis and the subsequent financial ramifications later posed on pertaining companies and the industries themselves. I will also briefly discuss the evolution of tobacco advertisements and the introduction of e-cigarettes into the tobacco market. Concerning newly legalized cannabis stores, I will discuss the struggle to acquire financial tools, the state-Federal disagreement, and proposed solutions to those issues. Both having been deemed public enemy number one, I will compare marijuana and tobacco regarding health effects, profitability after new laws, and their overall economic profitability for the country. I researched …

High Frequency Trading 101: Regulatory Impact In American And European Markets, Yasmine Elisabeth Allen

Honors Theses

High frequency trading has impacted the American and European financial markets through its advanced algorithms, rapid speed, and preferential treatment from purchasing information and co-location from exchanges. High frequency trading alone is not harmful, but without proper regulations it can hurt the financial markets. In this thesis, I researched implemented regulations, the consequences of those regulations, and pending new regulations. To gather information, I studied relevant research on the topic, including numerous academic articles and books to get a broader view of the issues. Through my research, I have found that previous regulations implemented by American and European regulatory agencies …

Derivatives: Benefits, Risks, And Regulations, Kristopher Nguyen

Honors Theses

This paper explores much preexisting research and history about derivatives. Derivative contracts can be used to hedge risk and to speculate in markets. To find the affects of hedging and speculating, I explored what other researches had found in studies and documented in history. Through out history, the regulations of derivatives have changes. I further explore some of the most recent changes in legislation and included those changes and some of the affects in this paper. Based upon the research of others I find that when non-financial firms hedge, those firms receive a lower cost of equity and cost of …

The Dodd-Frank Act's Impact On Systemically Important Financial Institutions, Andrew Wilkes

Honors Theses

Following the financial crisis of 2008, President Barrack Obama signed into effect the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on July 21, 2010. The Act contains stated goals of eliminating too big to fail and promote financial stability. In this paper, I analyze the impacts of new regulations on systemically important financial institutions. In Chapter one, I briefly review U.S. financial regulation and the financial crisis of 2008. In Chapter two, I identify how increasing capital requirements affects banks. This thesis then examines how the Order of Liquidation Authority and its Single Point of Entry Strategy has unintended …

The Impact Of International Financial Reporting Standards On Key Financial Indicators Of Canadian Companies, Clint W. Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Companies throughout the world use different methods for reporting their financial information to capital market investors and regulators. These different methods have caused financial reporting of statements to become less transparent, has increased adjustment errors and forecasting errors, and has reduced investor confidence. As a result, the International Accounting Standards Board created International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to establish a global standard. Currently, 140 jurisdictions worldwide have implemented IFRS. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of IFRS on 248 Canadian companies and to analyze whether the 2011 implementation of IFRS affected corporate stock prices, key financial …

The Dimensions Of Customer Satisfaction In The Jamaican Financial Service Industry, Dr. Lydia Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Bank leaders spend an average of $727 to acquire a new customer and $287 to retain current customers. Grounded in customer relationship management and adaptation level theories, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between service quality and customers' intention to switch banking service. An online survey was administered to 203 Jamaican banking customers. The target population was selected to identify if the Jamaican banks' customer service adhered to the customer satisfaction principles developed by Parasuraman. The independent variables were the 10 dimensions of service quality. Competence, courtesy, credibility, and access were removed because of multicollinearity …

Quantifying A Mining Investability Quotient To Mitigate Junior Mining Investment Risk, Jonathan Mickey Merguerian

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Uncertainty and risk are inherent features of investing in mineral exploration ventures. Investors rely on qualitative and quantitative analysis to evaluate risk of capital. The distinction between risk and uncertainty pertaining to mineral exploration is that risk is an opportunity for loss and uncertainty can be described as the range of probabilities that some condition may occur (Rose, 1987). Stakeholders rely on a combination of investment conferences, risk analysis equations, press releases, financial reports, and investment research to determine if an investment potential. J. M. Cozzolini developed a formula for Risk Adjusted Value (RAV) of an exploration venture. The study …