Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Policymaker Discourse In Colorado Public Higher Education Appropriations, Nathan Willers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

State funding for higher education is one of the most pressing issues facing both institutions and policymakers in 2022. Colorado has seen significant declines in the amount of state funding per student over the past two decades, resulting in increases in student burdens for tuition. Policy discourse analysis through a poststructural and neoliberal lens provided insight towards the legislative process and the discursive themes utilized by Colorado policymakers during the 2021-22 legislative budgeting cycle. Twelve artifacts were analyzed, including a mix of policy briefs, hearings, and budget and appropriations reports, for discursive data related to the state’s appropriations for public …

Round After Round: Understanding Dry Powder As A Determinant Of Spread In Leveraged Loans, Raizel Yu

CMC Senior Theses

Given the rise in private equity companies’ dry powder reserves, as well as the increased prevalence of covenant-lite loans pointing to a change in the overall dynamic of leveraged loan dealmaking, this paper aims to determine whether dry powder is a significant determinant of leveraged loan spreads. This paper uses a sample of loan level contract variables, borrower characteristics, and macroeconomic conditions from DealScan, Compustat, Pitchbook, and the Federal Reserve Economic Data. My findings are consistent with the hypothesis that availability of funds, measured in dry powder, is a good determinant of spread. As leveraged loans are a necessary component …

Securing The Overnight Rates: A Study Of Alternative Reference Rates In Illiquid Overnight Tri-Party Repo Markets, Michael Murphy

CMC Senior Theses

Since 2011, the London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR) has been on the way out for practitioners and researchers alike due to its manipulation in key bank quotes during the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). This paper intends to examine key rates being introduced as LIBOR substitutes, such as SOFR, BSBY, and Ameribor. Specific to its concern, the paper will back test these rates during times of illiquidity in both their respective markets and the broader financial markets to determine which rates will be able to sustain an abnormal drop in transaction volumes. Furthermore, this paper will try to determine whether a …

An Experimental Study: Audit Quality Importance On Selecting A Public Accountant Firm (Paf), Ruth Samantha Hamzah, Efva Octavina Donata Gozali, -- Patmawati

DLSU Business & Economics Review

The study aims to emphasize the importance of knowledge of audit quality on Public Accountant Firm (PAF) selection for a company by employing a 2x1 factorial design between-subject. To achieve this goal, we identified differences between the experimental and control groups. The experimental group was given knowledge of audit quality, whereas the control group had no treatment during the process selection of PAF. There were 10 indicators used in term of audit quality, namely audit workload, business expertise, audit turnover, audit hours, result of employee satisfaction surveys, partner compensation, result of client satisfaction surveys, PCAOB inspection results, restatements on audit …

Impact Of Cooperative Membership On Technical Efficiency And Marketing Efficiency: The Case Of Dairy Buffalo Farmers In The Philippines, Ceptryl S. Mina, Agham C. Cuevas

DLSU Business & Economics Review

Collective action by smallholder farmers through cooperative membership is regarded as one of the approaches to overcome production and marketing inefficiencies. This study investigates the impact of cooperative membership on the technical efficiency (TE) and marketing efficiency (ME) of dairy buffalo farmers in the Philippines. A total of 351 (249 cooperative members and 102 non-cooperative members) randomly selected farmers from Regions II, III, IV-A, and VII were interviewed. Using cross-sectional farm household data of dairy buffalo farmers, technical and marketing efficiencies were estimated. Linear regression with endogenous treatment was performed to determine the impact of cooperative membership on the TE …

The New Accounting For Operating Leases: Unintended Consequences In The Airline Industry, Renata Bandeira, Bridget M. Lyons, Carolyn Trabuco

WCBT Faculty Publications

By 2020, new accounting rules for operating leases were applicable to publicly traded companies reporting under either the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The accounting authorities under both standards noted that the new rules were developed to increase the transparency of lease transactions to provide more relevant and comparable information. We compare two Brazilian airlines reporting under IFRS, Azul and Gol, with an operationally similar US airline reporting under US GAAP, JetBlue, to determine whether the new standards improve the ability to understand, evaluate, and compare performance, managerial decision making and credit metrics. …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Corporate Financial Fragility In The Vietnamese Manufacturing Industry, Trang Nguyen

Honors Theses

In the past decades, under the government’s export-led growth strategy, the Vietnamese manufacturing sector – the backbone of the whole Vietnamese economy – has established a deep tie with the international market and the reliance on foreign buyers has fueled the growth of this sector before COVID-19. However, during the pandemic, when the global market contracted at -3.5 percent and demand slumped globally, this existing growth model and the manufacturing sector’s reliance on foreign buyers induced significant risks to this sector from both the demand and supply side. Using the firm-level data on 41 manufacturing exporting companies from the Vietstock …

Media Merger Madness: An Event Study Analyzing Acquiror Returns In Media & Entertainment, Samuel Johnson

CMC Senior Theses

Utilizing an event study methodology, this paper studies the effect that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) announcements have on media acquirors’ stock returns. This study also examines the effect that various characteristics of the target and acquiror have on acquirors’ returns. These characteristics include: location of the acquired company, year of the acquisition, industry of the acquired company, price of the acquired company, size of the acquiror, and serial acquiror status of the acquiror. My findings are consistent with previous literature that find that, in a short-term event window surrounding the announcement of a merger or acquisition, acquirors experience returns that …

Relationship Between Capital Structure And Financial Performance Of U.S. Retail Bank, Nelson Jonah Usoro

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe decision to fund the operations of a company through debt or equity has implications for the long-term sustainability of the organization. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to evaluate the impact of capital structure on the financial performance of U.S. retail banks and to observe the behavior of the banks during a time of crisis to determine whether capital structuring decisions could support the bank in surviving financial distress. The research questions focused on the effects of capital structure, including common stock equity with preferred stock compared to common stock equity with secured debt, on earnings, profitability, …

Optimization Of Financial Performance In E-Commerce, Ishmael Fleming

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Financial performance is a challenge for business managers in the e-commerce industry that lack the knowledge to meet their operational objectives consistently. Business managers are concerned with poor financial performance due to the adverse impact on business sustainability. Grounded in total quality management theory, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between working capital management (WCM), operating expense ratio (OER), and e-commerce financial performance. Archival data were collected from 107 small- to medium-sized publicly traded e-commerce businesses headquartered in the United States from 2019 to 2021. The results of the multiple linear regression were significant …

Strategies To Decrease Unethical Financial Management Behavior In Nonprofit Organizations, Cristi Michelle Hargrave

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Unethical financial management leadership conduct in nonprofit organizations threatens organizational mission accomplishment. Leaders of nonprofit organizations who fail to decrease unethical financial management conduct can observe a lack of mission accomplishment in their organizations. Grounded in the stakeholder and agency theories, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies nonprofit leaders use to decrease unethical financial management conduct. Participants were three nonprofit leaders from organizations on the East Coast of the United States who implemented strategies to reduce unethical financial management conduct. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of nonprofit regulatory reporting documents. …

Co-Jumps, Co-Jump Tests, And Volatility Forecasting: Monte Carlo And Empirical Evidence, Weijia Peng, Chun Yao

WCBT Faculty Publications

This study classifies jumps into idiosyncratic jumps and co-jumps to quantitatively identify systematic risk and idiosyncratic risk by utilizing high-frequency data. We found that systematic risk occurs more frequently and has larger magnitudes than the idiosyncratic risk in an individual asset, which indicates that volatilities from one sector are largely derived from the contagious effect of other sectors. We further investigated the importance of idiosyncratic jumps and co-jumps to predict the sector-level S&P500 exchange-traded fund (ETF) volatility. It was found that the predictive content of co-jumps is higher than that of idiosyncratic jumps, suggesting that systematic risk is more informative …

A Textual Analysis Of Logograms In Chinese Ipo Roadshows: How Agreement Between Investors And Management Relates To Pricing And Performance, James C. Brau, James Cicon, Stephen R. Owen

Faculty Publications

We analyze the interaction between management and investors during Chinese IPO roadshows through Jaccard Similarity analysis of written Chinese logograms. We provide evidence that when agreement is high, investor optimism increases, leading to relatively large first-day underpricing. We further show that high agreement biases investors to systematically overestimate IPO prospects leading to poor long-run abnormal performance. Jaccard Similarity is different from current content analysis methodologies because it is language and culture agnostic, requiring no a priori construction of thematic dictionaries. Elimination of such dictionaries removes the danger that the researcher has imposed predispositions upon the study.

An Analysis Of Selling Concessions, Reallowance Fees, And Price Changes In The Marketing Of Ipos, James C. Brau, Joseph J. Henry

Faculty Publications

This paper provides an economic model resulting in two distinct marketing strategies available to investment bankers. First, we hypothesize that an increased selling effort by brokers is used most effectively when the investment clientele is uninformed. Second, adjusting the offer price of the issue is hypothesized to be employed primarily in large IPOs with a clientele of sophisticated investors, consistent with Shiller’s Impresario Hypothesis. Our pre-IPO bubble (1981-1996) empirical results yield evidence supporting both selling mechanisms. Under-demanded small IPO issues are ‘pushed’ by the brokers, while some under-demanded large IPO issues instead increase the offer price, with large first-day turnover …

Bank Manager Strategies To Retain Skilled Employees Beyond 5 Years, Lana Faye Martin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe banking industry is fraught with low employee retention threatening the bank’s ability to perform optimally. Bank managers who fail to implement strategies to retain skilled employees experience reduced productivity and increased turnover costs. Grounded in the job embeddedness theory, the purpose of this qualitative single-case was to explore strategies bank managers use to minimize employees' intent to leave during downtimes in the banking industry. The participants were four employees of a Fortune 500 bank located in the U.S. in Virginia. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of organizational employee handbooks. The six themes identified through a …

Tax Avoidance, Corporate Governance, And Corporate Policies, Yang Yang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation includes three essays examining the interactions between tax avoidance, corporate governance, and corporate policies. The first essay exploits corporate governance shocks induced by cross-listing in the U.S., and find that firms tend to engage in less tax avoidance after cross-listing. This effect is more pronounced for firms that experience significant improvements in corporate governance, and for firms from countries with weaker shareholder protection and disclosure requirements. Taken together, the results indicate that cross-listing in the U.S. helps align the interests of managers and shareholders and reduces managerial diversion.

The second essay examines the importance of tax avoidance to …

Two Essays On The Evolution And Role Of Short Selling Activity In Financial Markets, Wanxi Zhao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

My dissertation studies the evolution and role of short selling activity in financial markets. My first essay examines the cross-sectional and time-series variations in the characteristics of equity lending market in the setting of IPO, where, as suggested by Duffie et al. (2002), search frictions are likely to be high. I find that the initial supply of lendable shares and short interest levels increase with offer size, while initial lending fees decrease with offer size. The initial lending fees are also positively related to the bargaining power of lenders and negatively related to the bargaining power of borrowers. The supply …

Learning To Manipulate A Financial Benchmark, Megan Shearer, Gabriel V. Rauterberg, Michael P. Wellman

Law & Economics Working Papers

Financial benchmarks estimate market values or reference rates used in a wide variety of contexts, but are often calculated from data generated by parties who have incentives to manipulate these benchmarks. Since the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) scandal in 2011, market participants, scholars, and regulators have scrutinized financial benchmarks and the ability of traders to manipulate them.

We study the impact on market welfare of manipulating transaction-based benchmarks in a simulated market environment. Our market consists of a single benchmark manipulator with external holdings dependent on the benchmark, and numerous background traders unaffected by the benchmark. We explore two …

The Relationship Between New Foreign Direct Investment And U.S. All Industry Sales, Sherron Alexander Jackson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the global production network, multinational corporations can squeeze domestic firms out of local markets. Nationally, economic developers are concerned about all industry sales as a symbol of the economic advantages featured in regional business production. Grounded in ownership, location, and internalization theory, the purpose of this ex post facto study was to examine the relationship between (a) new foreign direct investment (NFDI) for acquisition projects, (b) NFDI for greenfield establishment projects, (c) NFDI for greenfield expansion projects, and (d) all industry sales in the United States. Data were collected from the 2019 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) archival …

Marketing Segmentation Strategies For The Nonprofit Sector, Neffie Gatewood

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many nonprofit leaders lack innovative marketing strategies to secure funding from their target audience. Nonprofit leaders who do not continue to expand on their marketing strategies may fail to secure multiple funding streams, leading to an inability to attain their mission. Grounded in the segmentation, targeting, and positioning theory, this qualitative single case study was conducted to explore the traditional and social media marketing strategies used by nonprofit leaders to secure funding from their target audience. The participants were two senior leaders from a nonprofit organization in the U.S. Midwest region. Data were gathered using semistructured interviews, financial data, organizational …

A Comparison Of Ncreif, Inrev, And Anrev Open-End Core Fund Indices, Barrett A. Slade, Jeffrey D. Fisher, Joe D’Alessandro

Faculty Publications

Cross-border investment in non-listed real estate is on the rise. This article aims to compare the U.S. NFI-ODCE index with the European INREV ODCE index and the recently released Asian ANREV ODCE index with the hope that this study will be helpful to cross-border investors in these major markets. From 2016 through 2020 (five years), we found that the NCREIF fund count remained relatively flat, but the INREV and ANREV fund count increase steadily. At the end of 2020, NCREIF’s GAV was 270 billion dollars compared with INREVs 39 billion dollars and ANREV’s 16 billion dollars, a considerable size difference …

The Effect Of Unsuccessful Past Repurchases On Future Repurchasing Decisions, Geoffrey C. Friesen, Noel Pavel Jeutang, Emre Unlu

Department of Finance: Faculty Publications

We find that managers are less likely to repurchase stocks when they lose money on past stock repurchases but find no robust evidence that past gains on repurchases influence future repurchasing activity. This asymmetric sensitivity is strongest for young CEOs and those with the shortest tenure. Also, future repurchases are more sensitive to past repurchase losses for CEOs whose previous lifetime experience with the stock market is unfavorable. The sensitivity of future repurchases to past losses costs firms, on average, about 3.7% per year. When this cost is decomposed into systematic and idiosyncratic components, we find that nearly half (1.8%) …

Long-Term Analysis Of A Savings Program In Elementary School, Jennifer Davidson, William Walstad

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

The prevalence of in-school savings programs (ISSPs) for children and youth is widespread, but research on their effectiveness is limited. This study investigates the long-term effects of an ISSP conducted in one U.S. elementary school. Survey data were collected on the financial behaviors of high school students, who participated in or did not participate in an ISSP while attending the same elementary school at the same time. The results from a probit analysis of data controlling for demographic variables showed that ISSP participants compared with non-participants were more likely to have a bank account in high school. They also were …

Strategies To Mitigate Voluntary Employee Turnover, Mutale Chilangwa Chisela

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractBanking leaders are negatively affected when employees voluntarily leave their employment. Banking leaders who implement strategies can enhance employee satisfaction to mitigate voluntary employee turnover. Grounded in the transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies some banking leaders use to mitigate voluntary employee turnover. Participants were five banking leaders from local and international banks, four banks in Lusaka, Zambia, and one bank in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, who successfully implemented strategies to mitigate voluntary employee turnover. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and company documents and analyzed using Yin’s five phases. Three themes …

Strategies To Improve Minority Business Enterprises’ Access To Capital For Competitive Positioning And Profitability, Darlene Hill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some minority business enterprises (MBEs) have limited capital for setting up their businesses, which often leads to business failure. Grounded in entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies MBEs used to access capital to improve their competitive positioning and profitability. The participants were six MBE owners from Alabama who demonstrated success at maintaining and securing working capital to maintain a profitable business for a minimum of 5 years. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and reviews of organization documents and websites. Using Yin’s five-step data analysis process, four themes emerged: owner financing, government loans …

A Pair Trading Using Reinforcement Learning And Wavelet Decomposition, Panudate Nithinon

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

In this study, we propose a trading optimization methodology for the pair trading strategy. The Johansen cointegration test and the correlation measure are used for pair selection. We apply Deep-Q-network (DQN) technique in which the trainable reinforcement learning agent is designed to directly control the trading positions. The maximum overlap discrete wavelet transformation (MODWT) algorithm is used for generating the trading signal from the spread time series. Wavelet signal preprocessing is used to extract the original time series into cyclic time series components and long-term behavior components. Based on the in-sample performance this trading model successfully solves a profit maximizing …

Can Gambling Increase Savings? Empirical Evidence On Prize- Linked Savings Accounts, Shawn Cole, Benjamin Iverson, Peter Tufano

Faculty Publications

This paper studies the adoption and impact of prize-linked savings (PLS) accounts, which offer lottery-like payouts to individual account holders in lieu of interest. Using microlevel data from a bank in South Africa, we show that PLS is attractive to a broad group of individuals, with financially constrained individuals and those with no other deposit accounts particularly likely to participate. Individuals who choose to use PLS increase their total savings on average by 1% of annual income. Exploiting the random assignment of prizes,we present causal evidence that PLS substitutes for lottery gambling but is a complement to standard savings.

Strategies Small Businesses Use To Offer An Employer-Provided Tax-Advantaged Retirement Plan, Shawn R. Reinhart

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractImproving employee productivity has the potential to improve small business outcomes. Small business owners are concerned with employee productivity, as it is a substantial determinant of the success of a small business. Grounded in Herzberg’s two-factor motivation-hygiene theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies small business owners use to offer employer-provided tax-advantaged retirement plans to employees to increase productivity. Participants were six small business owners who successfully increased productivity by offering employer-provided tax-advantaged retirement plans. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and reviews of organization financial reports. Using Yin’s five-step analysis, three themes emerged: …

Mitigating Loss Of Cash Flow From Disruptive Technologies, Shenita Boudreaux Martin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

New technologies continually disrupt the financial service sector by providing products and services faster than traditional financial service institutions. Financial service leaders are concerned with losing market share to disruptive technologies. Grounded in disruptive innovation theory, the purpose of this qualitative, single holistic case study was to explore the strategies some financial service leaders use to mitigate the loss of cash flow from disruptive technologies introduced by fintech companies. The participants were eight financial service leaders who helped develop competitive strategies to mitigate the loss of cash flow introduced by disruptive technologies. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a …

Relationship In Alaska Native Corporations' Return On Equity From Sector, Gregory Stuckey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 1999, Stephen Colt studied the 12 regional corporations formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA). Colt reviewed the financial data from 1973 to 1993 and found the regional corporations lost approximately $380 million in business operations. However, the regional corporations increased their revenue from $714 million in 1993 to $8.575 billion in 2014. No further study of those subsequent 20 years has been conducted, so a data set to see if Colt’s conclusions hold was created. This multivariate correlational study tested two theories on the regional corporations: the theory of the economic efficiency of lump-sum …