Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Project Foresight Annual Report, 2021-2022, Paul J. Speaker

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Project FORESIGHT is a business-guided self-evaluation of forensic science laboratories across the globe. The participating laboratories represent local, regional, state, and national agencies. Economics, accounting, finance, and forensic faculty provide assistance, guidance, and analysis. Laboratories participating in Project FORESIGHT have developed standardized definitions for metrics to evaluate work processes, linking financial information to work tasks, and functions. Laboratory managers can then assess resource allocations, efficiencies, and value of services—the mission of Project FORESIGHT is to measure, preserve what works, and change what does not.

The benchmark data for the 2021-2022 performance period includes laboratory submissions for a variety of fiscal …

Northern Oil & Gas Strategic Audit, Jacob Hansen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Northern Oil & Gas is an energy company that operates in various basins across the United States. The company utilizes a non-operating model, meaning it does not drill wells or operate rigs, but rather partners with operators and acquires fractional working interests in drilling units. This report seeks to understand Northern Oil & Gas’ business model by examining its competitive strategy, advantages, and resources. Internal and external environmental factors are also analyzed using both PESTEL analysis and Porter’s Five Forces. In addition, key challenges facing the company are explored and recommendations are given on how Northern Oil & Gas can …

Essays On Reit Founder Ceos, Michael Mcgonigle

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

I explore how founder CEOs influence the firm. In my first chapter I examine how founderCEO risk-aversion affects firm capital structure. Using book and market leverage ratios to proxy for risk aversion, I show that REITs with founder CEOs have less leverage than other REITs. This result holds when controlling for firm size, firm age, tangibility, profitability, growth potential, diversification strategy, property-type fixed effects and year fixed effects. I use a propensity score matching methodology to examine whether the reduced leverage is due to factors other than a CEO's founder status. The results do not support that notion. I use …

Asset-Rich And Cash-Poor: Which Older Adults Value Reverse Mortgages?, Joelle H. Fong, Olivia S. Mitchell, Benedict S. K. Koh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Home equity represents a substantial share of retirement wealth for many older persons, particularly in Asia where national housing policies have encouraged home-ownership. This paper explored the potential for reverse mortgages to help 'asset-rich and cash-poor' older Singaporeans unlock their home equity while ageing in place. The empirical analysis was based on a nationally representative survey of home-owners age 50+ in the 2018 Singapore Life Panel (N = 6,258). Our analyses showed that the average older home-owner holds some 60 per cent of total net wealth in housing equity, suggestive of high demand potential for reverse mortgage products. Nevertheless, actual …

Performance Classification Of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck-Type Models Using Fractal Analysis Of Time Series Data., Peter Kwadwo Asante

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation aims to assess the performance of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck-type models by examining the fractal characteristics of time series data from various sources, including finance, volcanic and earthquake events, US COVID-19 reported cases and deaths, and two simulated time series with differing properties. The time series data is categorized as either a Gaussian or a Lévy process (Lévy walk or Lévy flight) by using three scaling methods: Rescaled range analysis, Detrended fluctuation analysis, and Diffusion entropy analysis. The outcomes of this analysis indicate that the financial indices are classified as Lévy walks, while the volcanic, earthquake, and COVID-19 data are classified …

Two Essays On Industry Tournament Incentives, Sarah Almisher

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

A large body of literature has developed on the disparities in compensation among chief executive officers. Financial media has highlighted the fact that CEOs in the United States receive excessive pay and that the gap among executive compensation is soaring. High compensation creates incentives for CEOs to take higher risk in firm policies to land a more attractive position managing another firm and attaining higher pay which is considered the ultimate prize (Kale, Reis, and Venkateswaran 2009; Coles, Daniel, and Naveen 2006). This creates a tournament in the managerial labor market. We define this tournament as the pay differential between …

Investigating The Costs And Economic Impact Of Flight Delays In The Aviation Industry And The Potential Strategies For Reduction, Ashmith Anupkumar

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study addressed a critical issue in our travel life: flight delays. This study covers all aspects of a flight delay, from its causes and consequences to reduction strategies. The focused research questions were: To determine the outcome of flight delays in the aviation industry, to determine costs associated with flight delays for airlines, airports, and passengers, and to determine strategies for reducing flight delays in the aviation industry for robust findings. The findings for each question were as follows: the primary causes were overscheduling, airport hubbing, late check-ins, technical failure, etc. And the consequences were significant financial loss, the …

Cbdc: Context, Challenges, And Conditions For A Successful Adoption, Charlie Nhuc Hiang Lay

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are the digital version of physical notes and coins. They are the latest milestone in the evolution of money over the centuries due to technological advancements. This digitalisation of physical money primarily serves as a medium of exchange that has a central bank anchor. There are two versions of CBDC, wholesale and retail. This thesis focuses on retail CBDC, which targets the general public and small daily transactions. It discusses the issues and the plausible implementation of a retail CBDC. A CBDC will preserve monetary sovereignty, foster financial stability, and counter private network effects, i.e., …

Perceptions Of Student Loan Debt: A Phenomenological Study Exploring Black Undergraduate Students' Experiences., Pilar Prather

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rising cost of higher education concerns many families in the United States, especially those from historically underrepresented backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of Black students' perception of their student loan debt and how their financial knowledge influences their decisions at a public institution. This qualitative research provides space to empower individuals to share their stories through semi-structured interviews to get an account of their experiences. Grounded in Yosso's (2005) Community Cultural Wealth Theory, the study seeks to capture the unique ways Black students make financial decisions. The dissertation is divided into five chapters: …

Learning-Based Stock Trending Prediction By Incorporating Technical Indicators And Social Media Sentiment, Zhaoxia Wang, Zhenda Hu, Fang Li, Seng-Beng Ho, Erik Cambria

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Stock trending prediction is a challenging task due to its dynamic and nonlinear characteristics. With the development of social platform and artificial intelligence (AI), incorporating timely news and social media information into stock trending models becomes possible. However, most of the existing works focus on classification or regression problems when predicting stock market trending without fully considering the effects of different influence factors in different phases. To address this gap, this research solves stock trending prediction problem utilizing both technical indicators and sentiments of the social media text as influence factors in different situations. A 3-phase hybrid model is proposed …

Rso Longevity Fund, Martin Fitzgerald Walker

Honors Theses

The reason for this research is to create a solution for fraternity and sororities as well as registered RSO’s on campus to allow them to create a fund that can provide a steady stream of income that will be used to pay national expenses, chapter expenses and fund future programs and events which may include scholarships or initiatives that the organizations feel the need to support.

Throughout my research I look to solve problems such as: How to Generate the Funds to support the renewable investment, how to manage the fund and who within the organization should manage and spend …

The Collapse Of Lehman Brothers And The Economic Fallout, Mark Kuykendall, Lauren Leroy

ATU Scholars Symposium

This research paper analyzes the causes and effects of the bankruptcy of the investment banking company, Lehman Brothers. We examined the economic and financial conditions of the business leading up to the collapse, what they truly were and how that differed from what investors were misled to believe. We will also explain the falsified financial statements and show how they deceived investors, along with the accounting ethics and rules that were violated. We also discussed the economy after the collapse and how it affected not only investors, but others outside the company as well.

Fafsa Completion Trends And How State Initiatives Impact High School Student Fafsa Completion Rates, Joseph Cecil

Honors Theses

Eight states currently have policies in place that make FAFSA completion mandatory/highly incentivized at some level (Granville, 2022, and Hughes, 2022). Texas, Louisiana, and Illinois were early adopters, and were then followed by Alabama; These four states have shown significant increases in state wide completion rates. Increases in completion were recorded to be as high as 26% in the first year of policy enactment and serve as tests to see what methods encourage students to complete the FAFSA. National data shows that low income and high minority schools can have college enrollment and FAFSA completion rates up to 13 times …

Special Needs Financial Planning Case Studies: Evaluation Of Three Financial Services Business Models' Approaches To Client Needs, Thomas Williams

Honors Projects in Finance

Special needs financial planning is the process and organization of a financial plan for a family with a child or children with a disability. A key aspect of special needs financial planning is planning for the life of a child with a disability after the death of their parents. Failing to conduct financial planning for such a family could leave the child with a disability relying on state-provided services with a poor quality of life. The following research outlines how four business models will approach a family with a special needs dependent. The four business models are a Registered Investment …

Effectively Influencing Personal Financial Management And Financial Preparedness Among Athletes, Darnel Shillingford

Honors Projects in Finance

Professional athletes live the dream of millions of people when they sign their first contract to be paid to play sports. For many athletes, they are coming into money that many have never seen before. Handling this money can prove difficult for athletes from a personal finance standpoint, and it is imperative for them to utilize the support systems around them. However, the support systems need to be readily available to the athlete for there to be a significant impact on the budgeting and investing practices of the athlete. Empowering an athlete to take full advantage of their time in …

A Review Of The Effect Of Esg On "Sin" Firms, William Stearns

Honors Projects in Finance

In this study, we examine the impact of ESG on stock returns and portfolio returns for sin stocks. The relationship between ESG and stock prices has been a topic of interest for research in recent years with the increasing emphasis on ESG in society. The present study analyzes the ESG scores for nine specific sin stock industries: tobacco, gambling, alcohol, adult entertainment, firearm, military, nuclear power, bioengineering, and oil and gas. This study is conducted through the use of statistical analysis with data collected from COMPUSTAT, CRSP, and MSCI. Our results reveal that ESG is negatively correlated with sin firm …

The Impact Of Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In The Fashion Industry, Hannah Dreska

Honors Projects in Finance

This research study is an examination of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the marketing and infrastructure of companies within the commercial fashion industry. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, this paper examines the purchasing preferences and behaviors of young adults and whether their opinions on diversity and inclusivity impact it. Second, this paper examines the financial impact of companies that adopted an inclusive and diverse approach to their marketing strategies and company infrastructure. I hypothesize that inclusivity and diversity are qualities highly valued by consumers and would thus have a positive financial impact on companies that focus on …

The Impact Of Federal Reserve Monetary Policy On Sector Etf And Market Cap Etf Performance, Maverick J. Boring

Honors College Theses

This study explores the impact of Federal Reserve policy changes on returns and volatility of U.S. equity markets, including large cap, mid cap, and small cap as well as the eleven sectors of the S&P 500. Federal Reserve policy changes in this study are measured by changes in the federal funds target rate. To measure the impact of these rates on U.S. equity markets, I construct a longitudinal dataset inclusive of exchange traded funds (ETFs) that serve as proxies for all eleven sectors, as well as one index and two ETFs that capture the performance of small, mid, and large …

Bridging The Chasm Between Fundamental, Momentum, And Quantitative Investing, Allen Hoskins, Jeff Reed, Robert Slater

SMU Data Science Review

A chasm exists between the active public equity investment management industry's fundamental, momentum, and quantitative styles. In this study, the researchers explore ways to bridge this gap by leveraging domain knowledge, fundamental analysis, momentum, crowdsourcing, and data science methods. This research also seeks to test the developed tools and strategies during the volatile time period of 2020 and 2021.

Following The Crowd: Beginners Investors Guide To The Options Market, Jeremy Dawkins, Alexy Morris, Jacob Gipson, Masoud Valizadeh

SMU Data Science Review

While the options market may be intimidating for a beginner, having the right tools can help improve the outcome of their investments. This project aims to develop a tool that uses time-series analysis and forecasting to model the future demand of S&P 500 and AAPL options contracts. The open interest of these contracts will be analyzed using various models such as AR, ARIMA, Neural Networks, and VAR, along with the put-call ratio. The goal is not to make buy or sell recommendations, but alert the user when money is flowing into a security or index. Of all the models, the …

On The Road Lending Program Evaluation: Final Report, Michael E. Swack, Jolan Rivera, Sanjeev Sharma

Carsey Publications

In this report, Michael Swack, Jolan Rivera, and Sanjeev Sharma discuss the results of the On The Road Lending (OTRL) program evaluation.

OTRL and its sister CDFI, On the Road Sustainability Funds (OTRSF), share a common mission to promote prosperity within America’s working families through transportation and financial innovation. While OTRL and OTRDF measure and report on many environmental, social, and financial outcomes, the most important are economic mobility measures and improvements in quality of life, namely, greater agency, and control of options through more wealth and time (OTRL, 2021).

OTRL clients work with a coach who provides vehicle purchase …

Things To Consider Before Co-Signing A Loan, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

In the context of family farms, includes some general points to consider before you sign a loan guarantee for a family member who is heavily in debt.

Conclusion: Having to consider whether to co-sign a child's loan is a very difficult situation-no one wants to be part of losing part of the family farm or ranch to loan foreclosure. But if the loan guarantee isn't part of a financial turnaround plan that has at least a fighting chance of success, don't sign the guarantee unless you absolutely don't need the money for your own retirement.

Determining The Most Suitable Benchmark(S) For The Liberty University Student Asset Management Fund, Colin Denney, Joseph Engle, Joshua Zody, Luke Perlot, Nathan Corcimiglia, Noah Clark, Quinn Davidson

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Applied

Recidivism Rates In The United States Versus Europe: How And Why Are They Different?, Madalyn Hayden

Honors Theses

Recidivism rates in the United States (70%) are almost triple that of most European countries (20% in Norway). The question that this project aims to answer is “How and Why are Recidivism Rates in the United States and Europe Different?”. High recidivism rates like the ones we have in the United States indicate that a criminal justice system is perpetuating a crime cycle, rather than rehabilitating or reforming its prisoners. High recidivism rates in the United States are first and foremost caused by high incarceration rates and high juvenile incarceration rates. Other causes are a focus on punishment in our …

Ethics And Nil, Jackson Krause

Honors Projects

Research diving into the ethics surrounds NIL, and how it is affecting the current collegiate athletic atmosphere.

Money And Energy, Admin Stem For Success, Natalie Wilson

STEM for Success Showcase

Money is related to physics concepts to teach students about work, potential energy and conservation of energy

Ceo’S Tweets And Firm Stock Returns: A Case Study Of Elon Musk And Tesla, Jauron Gunther Dam

Honors College Theses

This research study explores the relationship between a CEO’s public statements and a firm’s abnormal stock returns by focusing on the case study of Elon Musk’s tweets and Tesla’s stock price over the course of 2021. A longitudinal dataset is constructed by analyzing how the information contained in tweets affected Tesla’s short-run stock price. The textual data is analyzed based on CEO tweets, the daily frequency of tweets, explicit and implied fundamentals, and sentiment. The content of Elon Musk’s publications may lead TSLA to have abnormal returns. The tweets are able to capture influences from fundamentals and psychology. When Elon …

A Comparison Of Investing Strategies For Individual Investors, Ngoc Hoang

Undergraduate Research Conference

Objective: I compared the performance of three trading strategies to identify if one of them leads to higher ending wealth for the investor.

Blockholder Mutual Fund Participation In Private In-House Meetings, Robert Bowen, Shantanu Dutta, Songlian Tang, Pengcheng Zhu

Accounting Faculty Articles and Research

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) in China is unique worldwide in requiring disclosure of the timing, participants, and selected content of private in-house meetings between firm managers and outsider investors. We investigate whether these private meetings benefit hosting firms and their major outside institutional investors—blockholder mutual funds (i.e., funds with ownership ≥5%). Using a large data set of SZSE firms, we find that blockholder mutual funds have more access to private in-house meetings, and top management is more likely to be present, especially when a meeting is associated with negative news. Furthermore, when blockholder mutual funds attend negative-news meetings with …

Fraud And The Audit Expectation Gap, Samuel Pelumi Olatunde

Honors College Theses

This study seeks to explore the expectation gap Georgia Southern University business and non-business majors have toward the work of an auditor. This study aims to assess the understanding of Auditors' responsibility for preventing and detecting fraud. This study will help assess the roles of an auditor, a forensic accountant, and management in fraud detection and prevention. The study will also highlight the importance of equipping students with accounting knowledge relevant to the business environment. The research for the study is conducted through a survey questionnaire and interpreted with Excel software. The hypothesis is that students that are majoring in …