Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Two Essays In Economics And Finance, Phuvadon Wuthisatian

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation contains two essays. The first essay investigates the measure of FX liquidity and determinants of the change in FX liquidity. Using 20 cross currency exchange rates over spanning period of 1999 to 2016, funding constraints and global risks are responsible for the main drivers of changing in FX liquidity. The magnitudes of both G7 and emerging volatility index are offsetting each other in all the regression models indicating that FX investors take diversification trading strategies to diversify their portfolios. The financial crisis provides an evidence that the more financial constraint issues contribute to the change in FX market …

Skewness Risk, Jump-Diffusion Modeling And Pricing In Carry Trade, Chitsun Chen

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

This paper investigates jump risk and return characteristics of currency carry trades by employing both empirical approach and analytical method. With country-level stochastic discount factor, a mathematical model is proposed to describe carry trade return dynamics that capture jump risk. Carry trade returns are modeled as jump-diffusion processes where types of jumps involve global and idiosyncratic jumps. We derive the first four moments of return process on exchange rates and use the method of moments to estimate parameters, which show the model matches excess carry trade returns in data quite well. Empirical findings show that carry trade returns exhibit an …

Reduing Hospital Readmissions: Ideal Discharge Planning For Heart Failure Management, Chun Mei Chen, Chun Mei Chen

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

The objectives during this project were to achieve by the end of 2018 an overall reduction of 25% in HF readmissions within 30 days. By identifying root causes of readmissions and using needs assessment within the microsystem, literature highlights the elements defining interventions that can be used to improve transitions of care and reduce avoidable HF hospital readmissions. A plan was developed for integrating an evidence-based practice, IDEAL Discharge Planning, along with engaging patients and families at bedside from the first day of admission until discharge to more effectively assist staff in providing patient-centered education and self-care skills. The …

2018 Q2 Private Capital Access Index Report, Craig R. Everett

Pepperdine Private Capital Access Report

The Pepperdine Private Capital Access Index (PCA) is a quarterly indicator produced by the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, in partnership with Dun & Bradstreet. The index is designed to measure the demand for, activity, and health of the private capital markets. The purpose of the PCA Index is to gauge the demand of small and medium sized businesses for financing needs, the level of accessibility of private capital, and the transparency and efficiency of private financing markets.

Avis Budget Group: A Financial Analysis, Tralonie Perkins

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This paper presents a financial analysis behind Avis Budget Group, Inc. (CAR), a leading global provider of vehicle rental and car sharing services, operating three of the most recognized brands in the industry: Avis, Budget and Zipcar. Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative analysis, this report encompasses comprehensive data regarding the industry in which CAR competes, the company’s recent financial results, and forecasts of its future growth with five-year pro forma financial statements used to build a valuation model.

Finance & Budget Committee Packet, Wku Board Of Regents

Board of Regents Documents

Action items:

• NCAA Compliance Report
• 3rd Quarter Revenue & Expenditures
• Personnel Actions
• 2018-19 Budget Development

Quarterly Meeting Agenda & Packet, Wku Board Of Regents

Board of Regents Documents

Action and information items:

• John Hardin emeritus appointment
• Sam Bush honorary doctorate
• Distringuished professors - Ferhan Atici, Aaron Hughey
• NCAA Compliance Report
• 3rd Quarter Revenue & Expenditures Report
• Personnel Actions
• 2018-19 Budget Development
• Greg Collins contract
• College Heights Foundation, Inc. lease
• Naming Designated Rooms / Areas
• Terry Ballman, Provost Appointment

Three Essays On Special Donation Types (Dissertation Defense Slides), Jennifer Lehman

Faculty Publications - College of Business

Much research has been conducted on charitable giving where it is analyzed as a single, undifferentiated philanthropic transfer concept. Relatively less research has explored factors associated with special donation types such as

1) bequests,

2) lifetime donations to specific cause types, or

3) the intersection of bequests and lifetime donations to specific cause types.

This dissertation provides new information addressing all three of these areas.

The Leadership Role Of Management Accountants As It Contributes To Innovation And Entrepreneurship In Start-Up Businesses In Southern California, Paula Edwards

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand and describe the leadership role of managerial accountants as it contributes to innovation in start-up businesses in Southern California.

Methodology: The methodology used to understand and describe the leadership role of managerial accountants as it contributes to the innovation and entrepreneurship in start-up businesses in Southern California was a qualitative study. The study participants included 12 entrepreneurs who had started a business in the last five years, had utilized a management accountant on a part-time, full-time or consultant basis and are located in the San Diego, Orange, or Los …

2018 May Parkview Signature Care Thought Leader Forum, Jeanne Wickens, Sue Ehinger Phd, Jolynn Suko

Presentations and Events

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between A Firm’S Ownership Structure, Governance, And Innovation, Erica J. Wagner

College of Business Theses and Dissertations

Firm innovation is key for many companies to continuously thrive in the marketplace. Unfortunately, there are drawbacks to making innovative investments because of the upfront costs and riskiness of future returns. This creates conflicts because managers are under pressure to meet short-term earnings forecasts. A managers’ short-term focus on a firm’s business strategy may not be in the best interests of the shareholders’ long-term vision of a firm. For this reason, a strong corporate governance system can trigger an increased level of monitoring of the decision-making of managers so that it’s aligned with shareholders’ goals. Often, a firm’s long-term strategy …

Are Prize-Linked Savings Accounts The Solution To Arkansas' Savings Problem?, Mckenzie Wages

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research finds that access to prize-linked savings could improve the financial security of Arkansans. Prize-linked savings (PLS) accounts are nontraditional savings products that offer depositors the chance to win cash prizes instead of a typical interest rate return. Given the low median incomes, high liquid asset poverty rates, and high levels of underbanked and undereducated individuals in Arkansas, there is a need for an innovative savings solution like PLS in the state. PLS accounts capitalize on individuals’ propensity for lottery-like risk-taking to inspire the productive behavior of personal saving. A wide range of individuals, especially those who could stand …

Beyond Numbers: How Investment Managers Accommodate Societal Issues In Financial Decisions, Diane-Laure Arjaliès, Pratima Bansal

Business Publications

Investment managers use financial numbers to assess the quality of their portfolios, which requires them to estimate the market value of their assets—i.e., the priced trading of such assets. Prior research has shown that investment managers tend to disregard information that does not easily integrate into financial numbers, such as environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. We argue that when investment managers use visuals to incarnate ESG criteria, they are more likely to accommodate societal issues in their financial decisions. We undertook a three-year ethnography of an asset management company to better understand how investment managers respond to ESG criteria. …

High Returns And Low Volatility: The Case For Mid-Cap Stocks, Ryan Lynch

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study examines excess risk-adjusted returns generated by mid-cap firms with an average market equity between $2.4 billion and $5.5 billion in 2017. Researchers have heavily studied the small-firm effect since its identification in the early 1980s, leading investors to overweight small-cap securities. Additional investments in the small-cap segment caused the small-cap anomaly to weaken. This study finds that excess returns of small-cap firms compared to mid-cap firms are not statistically significant in the periods 1946 – 2017 and 1982 -2017. However, mid-cap firms generate significantly higher 3-year average returns relative to small and large-cap firms after the initial identification …

A Financial Epidemic: How Financial Literacy Affects College Students’ Financial Management Practices And The Debt Crisis In America, Mikala Styles

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Debt levels are rising significantly in America. More and more people are accumulating debt in the forms of mortgages, student loans, credit cards, and car loans. Basic financial principles such as saving, budgeting, investing, and paying bills are not being utilized consistently by the average individual. This is because of financial illiteracy. The vast majority of Americans do not have the basic knowledge and understanding of these financial concepts to adequately put them into practice in their daily lives. This study focuses on the levels of college students’ financial literacy, how that pertains to the rising debt crisis, and explores …

The Effects Of Players’ Salary Level And A Salary Cap On The Revenue Of Professional Soccer Teams In The United States And England, Tyler Watson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis serves as an examination of the relationship between players’ salaries and teams’ revenues for the American Major League Soccer and English Premier League. Historically, the salary cap imposed on teams playing in Major League Soccer has been heavily criticized of holding the league back. Comparisons have been made to leagues such as the English Premier League which assert that the limitation keeping Major League Soccer from attaining similar success is the presence of the salary cap. Data was gathered from the twenty teams in Major League Soccer and the twenty teams in the English Premier League for each …

Fair Trade And Its Value In Today’S Globalized Economy, Kristen Unangst

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My capstone examines how fair trade can operate in today’s globalized economy and how it can aid in solving some of the large problems that globalization has created. This paper is structured in the following way. It first examines globalization and the ways that it has advanced the world today. Then, it ventures into the problems that globalization has created and how they can be repaired using fair trade. This paper also looks into how fair trade has been successful in the recent past and how it can be improved in the future. It especially highlights how profitable fair trade …

Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Retirement Plans, Hunter Rhea

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

In my research, I’ve compared the cost and benefits of defined benefit and defined contribution plans consisting of 401(k)s, IRAs, 403(b)s, and S&P 500 ETFs. A model was used to forecast future value of plans at retirement based on years till maturity, contribution amounts, and plan type. Based on the results, it’s beneficial for an individual to invest in a diversified mix of retirement plans to reduce the risk associated with one plan. The future value of each plan witnessed a direct increase in value for an increase in contribution amount and years till plan maturity.

A Comparative Analysis Of Personal Financial Literacy, Connor Davey

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a comparative analysis of the financial state of modern American college graduates to similar groups of graduates. From this comparative analysis, we can see which aspects of Personal Financial Literacy need to be emphasized to achieve success as a new college graduate. First, a comparison was made between modern American graduates and American graduates from Generation X. It was found that modern graduates have just slightly more student loan debt than Gen X graduates, despite having significantly higher tuition rates. This debt amount, over time, would not be a huge concern for …

Financial Institutions And Systemic Risk: The Case Of Bank Of America 2006-2017, Jeffrey Mills

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper explores systemic risk and financial institutions before, during, and after the financial crisis. It focuses on Bank of America the 2^nd largest bank in the United States by assets. The paper includes an introduction to systemic risk and a review of literature on systemic risk. A few traditional measures of systemic risk will be defined, such as nonperforming loans, return on assets, return on equity, earnings per share, net interest margin, and capital adequacy ratio. Finally, the paper will take a look at how these traditional measures specifically relate to Bank of America from 2006 to 2017. …

Cryptocurrency: The Argument For Its Allocation Within The Traditional Investor's Portfolio, Nicholas Costanza

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research explores the significance of cryptocurrencies upon the “traditional” investor’s portfolio, particularly elaborating on the potential returns and advocating for its allocation within any balanced (or diversified) portfolio. Cryptocurrencies are a relatively new asset and are still considered to be extremely risky. They are characterized by ever-fluctuating prices, ongoing government regulation, and overall market skepticism. However, the potential of major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and Litecoin) to produce major returns cannot be easily ignored. This paper builds upon the research of those in academia, as well as highly respected investors. The hope is to outline both the pros and …

Quantifying The Return On Investment Of After School Programming, Ayesha Patel

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

Each fiscal year, there is a battle on Capitol Hill as lawmakers wrestle with reconciling political promises to financial reality. This process is completed with the goal of efficiently allocating scarce resources, in this case tax dollars and other government revenue, across the needs of the over 325 million diverse residents of the United States. Some budget items garner almost universal support, such as defense funding, infrastructure and education. While individuals may differ on how much funding each of these causes should receive, almost all agree that they should be funded by the federal government. Other budget items, such as …

Effective Resource Utilization In Arkansas Public Schools, Ryan Sanders

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Teacher pay in Arkansas public schools varies widely from district to district across the state. This pay discrepancy is driven by both the funds available to a district and by how these funds are allocated. There is a standard per student budget given to districts across the state, but this budget can be supplemented by additional property taxes collected on property within a district. This leaves districts with more highly valued property at an advantage. Districts are free to allocate their budget for teacher pay as they see fit, with constraints on number of students per teacher and minimum teacher …

Option Listing And Information Asymmetry, Jianfeng Hu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Option listing increases informed and uninformed trading by 12.4% and 23.9%, respectively, in the US between 2001 and 2010, hence reducing relative information risk. We establish the causal effects using control stocks with similar propensities of listing and a quasi-natural experiment using option listing standards. The benefits are more prominent for stocks with active options trading and opaque stocks. The reduction of information risk is larger for good news than bad news, and the stock price response to earnings surprise weakens after listing. The results suggest that options improve the overall market information environment beyond substitutional effects to stock trading.

Valuing Downstream Oil & Gas Companies: The Case Of Phillips 66, Taylor Robertson

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

While oil and gas prices remain volatile and often uncertain, they can provide key insight to businesses within the industry. In fact, oil and gas companies are considered to be more linked to oil prices than other day to day operations. In this paper, I will illustrate the relationship oil prices and crack spreads have on downstream oil and gas companies, specifically Phillips 66. Additionally, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and Fama & French 3-factor Model are evaluated to determine the best method to value a downstream oil and gas company. To do this, I will regress all factors against …

Buy-And-Hold Versus Momentum Investment Strategies During Financial Crises, Howard Ly

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

In his article, “Where the Black Swans Hide & The 10 Best Days Myth,” Mebane Faber found that most of the best and worst trading days occur when the market is already declining. This phenomenon is due to increased volatility during bear markets, a result of investors’ emotions. Emotions, particularly fear and greed, lead to irrational trading behavior, resulting in rampant speculation or panic selling. Ideally, an investor would be in the market for the above-mentioned best days and be out of the market during the worst days. However, the difficulty in predicting these important dates have led some investors …

Relation Between Inward Fdi Flows And Stock Market Development: Evidence From Emerging Economies, Luis Ramirez

Financial Analyst

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows have grown rapidly in size and importance in recent decades. They are an important source of capital in emerging markets and make up a significant proportion of GDP in many countries around the world. The international investment literature provides an extensive list of the impact of such capital flows, ranging from an increase in technological spillovers to a reduction in the market capitalization of the destination country’s stock market. This paper looks at one aspect of this broader research question. It examines the impact of FDI inflows on the size and liquidity of 14 developing …

Revisiting Wealth Effects And Merger Premium Determinants In The U.S. Financial Services Industry, Paul Vita

Financial Analyst

The U.S. financial services industry’s gains are generally soaring these days in light of impending deregulation and lower taxes for their clients as well as for themselves, but have they really emerged from the long shadow cast by the global financial crisis? This paper attempts to examine this issue focusing on two aspects of mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. financial services industry: the wealth effects and the merger premiums. Based on a sample of over 2,500 mergers and acquisitions deals completed during the period 2004 through 2016 and using the event study methodology, this study finds that target shareholders …

The Impact Of Labor Rights On Equity Returns: A Cross-Country Analysis, Robin Lieb

Financial Analyst

There is ample evidence that financial market development leads to economic growth. If improving labor rights can be shown to positively influence equity markets, then that, in turn, will lead to economic growth. The finance literature has examined the impact of a broader metric, namely, the Economic Freedom Index, on equity returns worldwide and the evidence is mixed. This study focuses on one dimension of economic freedom: labor rights. Specifically, the study analyzes the impact of labor rights on national equity market indexes, using the Labor Rights Index developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the …

Acquisitions: Walmart Vs Amazon, Scott Sims

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The retail industry is in the process of undergoing major change. Historically big box brick and mortar strategies have dominated, but this is changing in the age of impatience and instant gratification. As consumers want items more conveniently, online retail has taken hold with no semblance of anticipated decline. At the forefront of this transformation are two industry giants: Walmart and Amazon. Walmart finds itself on the side of brick and mortar with 11,718 physical retail locations worldwide. Amazon is dominating the online retail space with control of a staggering 44% of all US e-commerce sales in 2017. These equally …