Finance Commons^™

Tax Increment Financing: A History And Analysis Of Its Success And Failure, Justin Cederlof

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Tax increment financing (TIF) is used by cities and towns to subsidize projects within their jurisdictions. The name derives from the growth in the tax base that a (re)development is theoretically responsible for. The increase in tax revenue is directed to funds to pay for the project. TIF is used in 49 U.S. states and each state has unique legislation for its use of it, though there are large similarities between states on how it’s implemented. Research suggests mixed results with whether or not the increase in the tax base is enough to pay off how much money went toward …

2023 Finance Calendar, Amanda Christensen, Melanie Jewkes, Andrea Schmutz, Alicia Nelson-Bell, Vincenza Vicari-Bentley, Lisa Cox

All Current Publications

This 2023 calendar from Empowering Financial Wellness, Utah State University Extension, outlines small monthly steps to improve personal finances throughout the year.

Only 7.8% Of Eligible Vehicles In Utah Enroll In The Utah Road Usage Charge (Ruc) Program, Tyson Bomsta, Joe Davis

Research on Capitol Hill

Senior Tyson and sophomore Joe are Center for Growth Opportunity Research Fellows studying economics and finance at USU. The duo focused their research on their native Utah. The increase in fuel-efficient and electric cars has begun to impact Utah’s ability to fund roadwork, and this is likely to become a more serious problem as time goes on. Taxing gas is no longer a viable way to raise the funds necessary, and Joe and Tyson are looking at ways to reform our tax structure to keep Utahns on the road. Both students agree that research is the best way to learn. …

Two-Sided Platform Pricing And Competition Under Realistic Pricing Structure, Tongyao Jiang, Jie Chen, Zhixuan Xiang

Economics and Finance Student Research

This paper is motivated by the prevailing pricing structure and competition in Chinese food-delivery market. Currently, two oligarchs in China’s food-delivery market are Meituan-Dianping Takeout and ELEME Takeout, which accounting for more than 95% of the market share. Both of these platforms charge a percentage commission based on per-transaction price and involve per-agent fee. So far, few research has been found to make analysis under such realistic pricing structure, and we help to fill this gap by developing a model for platform competition based on the model developed by Armstrong. The results we get under the realistic pricing structure and …

The Knights Templar: Blood And Banking, Morgan Thatcher

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

The Knights Templar were a martial religious order founded in the 12th century AD. Though they were known for their prowess on the battlefield, more importantly, they became an important and integral part of the Medieval financial and economic world. This was only possible due their unique position as a sanctioned part of the Catholic Church, their reputation, political connections, and a changing idea of what money was. The Templar utilized every facet of their position in order to gain wealth and power, but were ultimately brought low at the hands of Philip IV of France.

Determinants Of The Student Loan Decision And Financial Well-Being: The Role Of Financial Education, Financial Literacy, And Student Loan Characteristics, Emily Shaffer Hales

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The student loan crisis has been an important area of personal, political, and research discussion. Many individuals must make the decision to attend college with the help of student loans and millions are currently in repayment on their student loan. However, it can be difficult to understand what factors may play a role the decision to take out a student loan and how managing one’s student loan could affect their personal financial well-being. Thus, this study examined factors that could be related to how an individual may decide to take out a student loan, such as if they participated in …

Association Between Financial Education, Affective And Cognitive Financial Knowledge, And Financial Behaviors, Lucy M. Delgadillo, Yoon Lee

Applied Sciences, Technology and Education Faculty Publications

Using data from the 2018 National Financial Capability Study, this paper examined the relationship between financial education participation and affective and cognitive financial knowledge. Involvement in financial education yielded statistically significant associations between affective and cognitive domains. The results showed that participation in financial education was associated with both cognitive and affective financial knowledge as well as long-term financial behaviors. The findings supported the case for life-long learning of financial education for young adults, Blacks and Hispanics, and women. One important implication was the need to include both the affective and cognitive domains when teaching or researching financial education.

We Can Use Machine Learning To Determine Which Financial Ratios Are Best For Investors, Collin Butterfield

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study develops and tests the hypothesis that the machine learning algorithm, Random Forests, can be used to systematically pick financial ratios that would be best for indicating market trends and be used subsequently to perform comparable analysis to speculate whether a firm is over- or under-valued. Results show that financial ratio selection differs depending on the market sector to which a firm pertains. We examine the 11 financial sectors representing the key areas of the economy. We also look at four possible trading strategies that an investor could have: month-long, quarter-long, semi-annual, and annual to capture differing trading horizons.

Political Connections And Abnormal Stock Returns: An Analysis Of The Trump Nominations, Kennon Bacon

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Shortly after winning the 2016 Presidential Election, Donald Trump began announcing his Cabinet nominations. I examine cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) for firms with political connections to Cabinet and some non-Cabinet level appointments. Nominee and stock characteristics are aggregated, and I find positive and significant CARs surrounding the announcement dates. Additionally, the traits of being a Cabinet nominee, being a board member, and having a narrow confirmation margin all significantly explain the CARs for various event windows and subgroups. The annualized CARs around the announcement date for these firms are often greater than 100% in excess of the market, providing strong …

Profit Shifting And Corruption, Katarzyna Anna Bilicka, André Seidel

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper introduces heterogeneous profit shifting costs induced by corrupt tax officials to the analysis of profit shifting of multinationals. Using a theoretically derived corruption weighted tax differential, we show that corruption increases profit shifting of European firms. We use our estimates to calculate the implied tax revenue elasticities for European countries and find that countries with otherwise similar tax rates face lower tax revenue elasticities when they are more corrupt. This means that corruption negatively affects the revenue gains that countries could have from increasing their tax rates.

Potential Weather Data Anomolies Within The Usda's Pasture Rangeland And Forage Insurance Program, Chad Steven Van Orden

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this study is to delve into the functionality of the PRF insurance program. The primary goal is to uncover any underlying anomalies which may inadvertently skew data within the program. Because the USDA uses NOAA’s weather stations regardless of location or timing of activation, it is consequential that the collected precipitation data may be inconsistent across both time and space. This phenomenon could have substantial and significant effects on the RMA’s PRF insurance program, resulting in producers being compensated inaccurately for their insurance claims.

Comparing Uk Tax Returns Of Foreign Multinationals To Matched Domestic Firms, Katarzyna Anna Bilicka

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

In this paper, I use confidential UK corporate tax returns data to explore whether there are systematic differences in the amount of taxable profits that multinational and domestic companies report. I find that the ratio of taxable profits to total assets reported by foreign multinational subsidiaries is one-half that of comparable domestic standalones. The majority of the difference is attributable to the fact that a higher proportion of foreign multinational subsidiaries report zero taxable profits. I document how the estimated difference is related to profit shifting and show that using accounting data leads to much smaller estimates of the difference.

The Impact Of Immigration On Financial Markets, Jesse Baker

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper studies the impact of immigration policy on financial markets. I estimate the cumulative abnormal returns surrounding two events the effective start date of the Immigration Act of 1990 and the implementation of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of Nicaragua and Honduras in 1999. Focusing on agriculture, construction, and manufacturing firms, I find that the CARs surrounding the events are indeed positive and significant, suggesting that the market anticipated growth among industries that are likely to hire Central American immigrants.

Is Uber A Substitute Or Complement For Public Transit?, Jonathan D. Hall, Craig Palsson, Joseph Price

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

How Uber affects public transit ridership is a relevant policy question facing cities worldwide. Theoretically, Uber’s effect on transit is ambiguous: while Uber is an alternative mode of travel, it can also increase the reach and flexibility of public transit’s fixed-route, fixed-schedule service. We estimate the effect of Uber on public transit ridership using a difference-in-differences design that exploits variation across U.S. metropolitan areas in both the intensity of Uber penetration and the timing of Uber entry. We find that Uber is a complement for the average transit agency, increasing ridership by five percent after two years. This average effect …

Do Congressmen Really Drive Cars?, Tyler Brown

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

My research focuses on stock returns around term elections. I will be looking at the 50 most held stocks of congressmen, and taking the returns of these stocks against the market average during election season. I examine if there are Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CARs) that can be realized as a result of information about the elections. I want to find any possible trading strategy that investors could use to obtain returns that are in excess of the market average. I am attempting to discover how the market behaves when election season is occurring. This information could prove to be very …

The Effects Of Economic Policy Uncertainty On Common Stock And American Depository Receipts, Bradley David Zynda Ii

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Uncertainty can have profound implications on both firms and individuals who hope to optimally make decisions in their best interest. In this research, I seek to examine the impact that economic policy uncertainty has on domestic and foreign stock. In particular, I take a market microstructure perspective focused on stock liquidity and volatility measures in response to changes in economic policy uncertainty. Understanding the directional flow of economic policy uncertainty and the magnitude of the consequences at home and abroad can both help prepare agents to make good decisions about the future and exhort policy makers to be more efficient …

An Empirical Study Of The Impact Of The Change In Real Effective Exchange Rate On China's Inflow Of Foreign Direct Investment, Mingyu Niu

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

With the development of worldwide economic and globalization, China plays an important role in international trade. Since the "reform and openness" and "five years' plan", China’s economy became the second largest in the world. During the period of economic development, Foreign Direct Investment became an important part of improving market socialism in China. In this paper, I use monthly data on foreign direct investment (FDI) in China and the index of real effective exchange rate (REER) of the Chinese RMB for the period from Jan 2008 to Nov 2017. I develop a statistical model to test the causality between FDI …

Regulation And Energy Poverty In The United States, Michael C. Jensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Energy poverty is a topic often neglected in the discussion about global climate change. Apocalyptic prophecies about the negative future effects of climate change ignore the suffering of people around the globe whose lives could be drastically improved with access to reliable sources of energy. Though energy poverty from a global perspective is much more serious than energy poverty from a domestic perspective, high home energy bills are a serious cause for concern for many Americans.

This research examines the relationship between regulation, the prices of electricity and natural gas, and the household energy burden, which is the ratio of …

Range-Based Volatility, Expected Stock Returns, And The Low Volatility Anomaly, Benjamin M. Blau, Ryan J. Whitby

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

One of the foundations of financial economics is the idea that rational investors will discount stocks with more risk (volatility), which will result in a positive relation between risk and future returns. However, the empirical evidence is mixed when determining how volatility is related to future returns. In this paper, we examine this relation using a range-based measure of volatility, which is shown to be theoretically, numerically, and empirically superior to other measures of volatility. In a variety of tests, we find that range-based volatility is negatively associated with expected stock returns. These results are robust to time-series multifactor models …

How High School Records And Act Scores Predict College Graduation, Lianqun Sun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The primary purpose of this study is to assess the degree to which ACT scores and high school records predict success in college. I used large public university admission and graduation panel data in order to address the following questions: (1) Are high school records (class rank, high school grade point average (GPA), and Advanced Placement (AP) test credits) better predictors of college success than ACT scores, and which is the best predictor among high school records and ACT scores? (2) Is there any heterogeneity in these effects across race, sex and residency (state or non-state students)?

By answering these …

The Impact Of Grade Ceilings On Student Grades And Course Evaluations: Evidence From A Policy Change, Devon Haskell Gorry

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper analyzes the effects of a grade ceiling policy on grade distributions and course evaluations. Results show that the effects vary based upon the level of the grade ceiling. A ceiling set at 2.8 decreased overall grade point average (GPA) by reducing the number of As and Bs and increasing the number of lower grades given. This low ceiling also increased the number of withdrawals and significantly lowered course evaluations. A ceiling set at 3.2 decreased overall GPA by reducing the number of As and increasing the number of Bs given, but the effects on course evaluations were smaller …

The Influence Of Height On Academic Outcomes, Devon Haskell Gorry

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper examines whether the height premium for academic outcomes is driven by unequal opportunities for tall individuals. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, this paper shows that taller individuals typically earn higher grades and attain more schooling, but the associations are not uniform across school size. Height is only associated with better outcomes for students attending large schools and these improvements are concentrated among males. Data suggest that height contributes more to sports participation and school satisfaction in large schools where resources are more scarce. Thus, differential opportunities or treatment across height in large schools …

Barriers To Health Care Access For Refugees In Cache County, Utah, Michael Timo Hoggard

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The United States has a rich history of resettling refugees. The United States resettled hundreds of thousands of refugees at the conclusion of World War II, and has resettled more than 3 million refugees since 1975 (Refugee Council USA, 2016). A refugee is a forcibly displaced person who will not or cannot return to their country of origin because of fear of physical harm or persecution (United Nations, 1951). Refugees are distinct from other forms of immigrants in many ways: refugees do not choose their country for resettlement, they receive government assistance upon arrival, their residency and work permits are …

A Look At The Controversies Of The United States Export-Import Bank, Bo A. Johnson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The Ex-Im Bank is the official export credit agency of the United States. The Bank was established in 1934 to aid a depressed economy and foster global trade. Ex-Im was mandated to improve economic conditions and international trade by providing financial assistance where the private sector fell through, while not competing against private firms. The bank has four main tools to perform its responsibilities - direct loans, loan guarantees, working capital financing, and credit-export insurance.

The Ex-Im Bank has enjoyed a long history of strong bipartisan support. Opposition surfaced in the late 2000's leading to an Ex-Im temporary shutdown. The …

A Monte Carlo Study On The Persistence Of Variance With Garch, Aristides Romero Moreno

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The GARCH model is widely used to forecast volatility for economic and financial Data. There are, however, several shortcomings of using the simple GARCH estimator alone for forecasting volatility. The major issue with the use of the default GARCH model is the persistence of variance that evolves through time and the simple GARCH model fails to address. This paper looks at the GARCH(1,1) model and consistent with Lamoureux and Lastrapes (1990), finds that it overstates the persistence of variance due to model misspecification, specifically the lack of structural shifts.

Fear-Based Policymaking: How Government Agencies Exploit Mortality Risk Perceptions, Alecia M. Hunter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The objective of this thesis is to explore how government policymakers use distorted Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) calculations for their personal benefit. The VSL estimates how much a large group of citizens would jointly pay to save the life a one random person from a fatal disease. The VSL is used by government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency. Agencies use the VSL in benefit-cost analyses to help determine potentially favorable life-saving policy from wasteful policy. Despite the well-intentioned objectiveness and decisiveness of the VSL, the political framework incentivizes miscalculated and exaggerated VSL estimates. Public choice theory addresses …

Hyperbolic Memory Discounting And The Political Business Cycle, T. Scott Findley

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

The vintage political business cycle framework of Nordhaus (1975) represents the idea that the macroeconomic business cycle is manipulated opportunistically by an incumbent government to achieve re-election. A key assumption in this prototypical framework is that voters discount their memories about unemployment and inflation at a constant rate. Yet starting with Ebbinghaus (1885) and Jost (1897), a large body of research in psychology documents an empirical regularity that has come to be known as Jost's Second Law of Forgetting-individuals discount recent memories at a higher rate compared to the rate at which they discount older memories. I find that incorporating …

Discussing Economic Factors' Effects On Personal Saving Rate, Zhong Wang

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Business capital and investment are increasingly moving abroad as globalization occurs, and worldwide economic integration is accordingly strengthened. The extremely low personal saving rate in the United States and the extremely high personal saving rate in China are always a concern for economists. This project uses data from the United States and economic and econometric methodologies to analyze and discuss several economic factors that affect the U.S. personal saving rate. The result shows that the housing and stock market booms, an increasing interest rate, and a decrease in the ratio of workers to retirees cause the decrease in personal saving …

Exploring The Relationship Between Utah's Wages And Utah's Real Estate Values, S. Scott Laneri

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper uses a variety of multiple regression analysis techniques to attempt to answer whether a direct relationship exists between Utah's employee wages and Utah's residential real estate values. Unexpected declines in real estate values can have seriously negative impacts on businesses, individuals, and local governments in Utah. Conversely, unexpected increases represent missed opportunities. Researchers have used various statistical and mathematical methods to explain or predict changes in real estate values, but no method has consistently predicted values for a long period of time or across multiple geographical areas. This paper focuses on exploring the relationship between variables in Utah …

The Affordable Care Act: Five Years Later, Andrew Dana Izatt

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The challenges facing the American health care system are well known and manifold. The United States pays substantially more for its health care than any other developed, industrialized nation. Per capita health care spending in 2012 was $8,745, up from $356 in 1970 without marked improvements in life expectancy, quality of life, or outcomes. But despite all of our health spending, large portions of our population go without health insurance. Being uninsured carries real consequences. A report published in the American Journal of Public Health, by researchers at Harvard Medical School, using statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and …