Finance Commons^™

The Regulatory Response To Madoff, Anita Krug

All Faculty Scholarship

This white paper evaluates investor protection mechanisms in the securities regulatory regime at the time the Madoff fraud was exposed. It considers whether the post-Madoff call for additional regulation of hedge funds and/or their managers - and/or their respective activities - was warranted.

Why Do Entreprenuers Have Higher Longevity Expectations?, Govind Hariharan, Huan Ni

Faculty Articles

The health and lifespan of entrepreneurs not only affect their private decisions such as consumption and savings, assets transfer, life insurance and labor supply, but also their business decisions. Based on a large longitudinal data set of individuals in the United States, we find in our sample of business owners that they expect to live much longer (7.47% higher) than non business owners. Moreover, these entrepreneurs have better self-rated health, better health endowment, and are more likely to exercise frequently. In future work we will further disentangle the effects of these observable characteristics from those of unobserved heterogeneity.

Advancing The Fiscal Health Of Low-Income Families: A Public And Community Health Approach, Doreen Treacy

Center for Social Policy Publications

For decades, health researchers have documented the links between individual and household income/wealth and clinical health outcomes. The research and literature consistently point to both income inequality (i.e. individual household income/wealth as compared to other households in the same state) and individual household income as predictors of diminished health and morbidity. And yet the current framework for providing financial education, disseminating asset building information, and overall responding to the financial health of individuals and households takes no cues from public health and community health best practices. Further, the documented links between financial stress and compromised physical health are compelling enough …

Productivity Effects On Mexican Manufacturing Employment, Andre V. Mollick, Rene Cabral

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

We examine the effects of labor productivity and total factor productivity (TFP) on employment across 25 Mexican manufacturing industries from 1984 to 2000. Employing panel data methods, several interesting findings emerge. First, we observe a strong and positive impact of NAFTA on employment. Second, productivity exerts a procyclical, positive effect on employment but this effect becomes smaller after NAFTA. Third, partitions of our sample according to capital-labor intensity suggest that industries which are less capital-intensive were affected negatively on impact by NAFTA but that productivity impacted employment positively after NAFTA. In contrast, more capital-intensive industries display these results in reverse.

Misaligned Incentives And Mortgage Lending In Asia, Richard Green, Roberto S. Mariano, Andrey Pavlov, Susan Wachter

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper provides a conceptual basis for the price discovery potential for tradable market instruments and specifically the development of mortgage securitization in Asia and the potential dangers of such markets. Nonetheless we argue for the potential importance of securitization in Asia because of its possible role in increasing transparency of the financial sector of Asian economies. We put forth a model explaining how misaligned incentives can lead to bank generated real estate crashes and macroeconomic instability, with or without securitization under certain circumstances. We examine the banking sector’s performance in Asia compared to securitized real estate returns, to provide …

Can Liquidity Shifts Explain The Lockup Expiration Effect In Stock Returns?, Chandrasekhar Krishnamurti, Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, Tiong Yang Thong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Several studies on the expiration of IPO lockups document a strong negative reaction even though the unlock event is devoid of any informational content. The empirical finding has remained a conundrum. In this paper, we find that changes in liquidity can account for the observed stock price reaction around lockup expiration. Specifically, firms which show improvement in liquidity subsequent to the unlock day experience positive abnormal returns in the post-expiration period, and vice versa. Another interesting conclusion that emerges from our research is that liquidity changes can predict future abnormal returns. Our results remain robust to the use of alternate …

The Hedge Fund Transparency Act Of 2009, Anita Krug

All Faculty Scholarship

This white paper provides a review and critique of a bill introduced by Senators Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) in the Senate in early 2009 that, if enacted, would have imposed certain registration and disclosure requirements on hedge funds and certain other private funds.

Residential Values In Benton County: Current Outlook, Katherine A. Deck, Viktoria Riiman

Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this report is to evaluate the current underlying economic conditions in Benton County, Arkansas as they relate to the growth in the valuation of residential property values. First, the economic section provides some details of employment and population growth during the last two years. The second section discusses residential sale values and how they have changed from 2007 to 2008. Data from the Office of the Benton County Assessor and from the Arkansas REALTOR Association are used to demonstrate the change in property valuation.

Analyzing And Forecasting Business Cycles In A Small Open Economy: A Dynamic Factor Model For Singapore, Hwee Kwan Chow, Keen Meng Choy

Research Collection School Of Economics

A dynamic factor model is applied to a large panel dataset of Singapore’s macroeconomic variables and global economic indicators with the initial objective of analyzing business cycles in a small open economy. The empirical results suggest that four common factors are present in the quarterly time series, which can broadly be interpreted as world, regional, electronics and domestic economic cycles. The estimated factor model explains well the observed fluctuations in real economic activity and price inflation, leading us to use it in forecasting Singapore’s business cycles. We find that the forecasts generated by the factors are generally more accurate than …

The Financial Crisis And Global Supply Chains, Robert Mefford

Finance

The financial crisis which erupted in 2007 has already had profound effects on the global supply chains of multinational firms and will likely permanently alter some fundamental supply relationships. This essay explores what some of the consequences have been to date and speculates about future effects. Of course, the length, scope, and severity of the financial and economic crisis will determine how significant and permanent these impacts are, and it is impossible at this point in time to forecast this accurately. But in any case there have already been major developments in global supply chains that are likely to persist …

Grant Writing Handbook For Our Lady Of Fatima Parish School, Tracy Severson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This manual is an applied thesis written for Our Lady of Fatima Parish School, a small Catholic school located in Huntington, West Virginia. Its purpose is to introduce novice grant writers to the terms and processes associated with grant writing for this particular parochial school. The manual guides the fledgling writer through church and school history, ideas and strategies to develop the grant, grant writing and the post-submission process. Only examples from submitted church grants are referenced and all address Our Lady of Fatima needs and mission statement. The handbook is intended as a springboard for grant writing in the …

The Alliance Formation Puzzle And Capacity Constraints, Kai A. Konrad, Dan Kovenock

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

The formation of an alliance in conflict situations is known to suffer from a collective action problem and from the potential of internal conflict. We show that budget constraints of an intermediate size can overcome this strong disadvantage and explain the formation of alliances.

Origins And Resolution Of Financial Crises: Lessons From The Current And Northern European Crises, Finn Østrup, Lars Oxelheim, Clas Wihlborg

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Since July 2007, the world economy has experienced a severe financial crisis that originated in the U.S. housing market. Subsequently, the crisis has spread to financial sectors in European and Asian economies and led to a severe worldwide recession. The existing literature on financial crises rarely distinguishes between factors that create the original strain on the financial sector and factors that explain why these strains lead to system-wide contagion and a possible credit crunch. Most of the literature on financial crises refers to factors that cause an original disruption in the financial system. We argue that a financial crisis with …

A Proposed International Unit Of Account : Implications For Financial Markets, Commodity Markets, And Research, Lok Sang Ho

Centre for Public Policy Studies : CPPS Working Paper Series

There are substantial benefits from having an indexed unit of account for denominating bonds, contracting, and for quoting commodity prices. A new real effective exchange rate (REER) index is derived using GDP weights and an implicit world price index obtained incidental to the derivation of the indexed unit of account. In a prototype exports function estimation, this new index beats most of the other published real effective exchange rate indices. The superior performance is probably due to the fact that with globalization and production fragmentation trade weights have become increasingly misleading because of the prevalence of re-exports and even re-re-exports.

Indiana State University Financial Report 2009, Indiana State University

Financial Reports

No abstract provided.

Alasdair Macintyre’S Aristotelian Business Ethics: A Critique, John Dobson

Finance

This paper begins by summarizing and distilling MacIntyre’s sweeping critique of modern business. It identifies the crux of MacIntyre’s critique as centering on the fundamental Aristotelian concepts of internal goods and practices. MacIntyre essentially follows Aristotle in arguing that by privileging external goods over internal goods, business activity – and certainly modern capitalistic business activity – corrupts practices. Thus, from the perspective of virtue ethics, business is morally indefensible. The paper continues with an evaluation of MacIntyre’s arguments. The conclusion is drawn that MacIntyre’s critique, although partially valid, does not vitiate modern business as he claims. In short, modern business …

Winning, Running, And Renewing The Outsourcing Contracts, Z Perunovic, M Christoffersen, Robert Mefford

Finance

The paper explores how vendors deploy competences and capabilities across the outsourcing process in order to win, run, and renew outsourcing contracts. The results of a multiple-case study of three contract electronics manufacturers (CEMs) show that different combinations of capabilities are required for a vendor to win, run, and renew outsourcing contracts. Permanent capabilities are constantly present across the process, while temporary capabilities, depending on customer requirements, can be added or removed from the portfolio of capabilities.

Market Volatility Asymmetries: The Effects Of Stock Market Returns On Realized And Implied Volatilities, Matthew M. Chestnut

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Volatility is an integral and inescapable variable of financial engineering, modeling, and finance theory itself Classical financial economics proxies volatility for risk itself, as it becomes difficult to predict future price realizations of a given asset when that asset exhibits significant price volatility over a given time. However, the nature of volatility as it is explained by classical financial economics has been extensively questioned in the previous three decades, since it is characterized as a function of uncertainty aggregate market psychology-that is, as a function of fear, greed, exuberance, and other fundamental human instincts and emotions. While previous research has …

Lanse Minkler On Human Rights And Structural Adjustment By Rodwan Abouharb & David Cingranelli. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 276pp., Lanse Minkler

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Human Rights and Structural Adjustment by Rodwan Abouharb & David Cingranelli. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 276pp.

An Analysis Of The Intra-Regional Trade In The Middle East And North Africa Region, E. M. Ekanayake, John R. Ledgerwood

Publications

This paper analyzes the intra-regional trade and investment flows in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using an augmented gravity model applied to panel data. The study uses annual trade and investment data for the period 1980-2006. There is a growing awareness among countries in the MENA region regarding the importance of international trade and foreign direct investment for stimulating growth and integrating into the world economy. The research will attempt to achieve the following objectives: (a) analyze the intra-regional trade and investment flows in the MENA region; (b) identify the major determinants of trade and investment flows …

Can Parallel Exchange Rates Forecast Commodity Prices?, John F. Roberts

Honors Theses

Commodity price uncertainty imposes large costs on society. On the macro level, it results in sudden and unexpected shifts in current account imbalances and real GDP volatility, while on the micro level, it leads to allocation inefficiencies. Accurate price forecasts have the potential to remove some of this uncertainty and allow for a more efficient distribution of resources, and thus, an increase in social welfare. Despite the obvious gains to be had from accurate commodity price forecasts, few models have been able to deliver these results. Chen, Rogoff and Rossi (2008) were the first to find a promising link between …

The Rise Of Private Equity Media Ownership In The United States: A Public Interest Perspective, Matthew Crain

Publications and Research

This article examines the logic, scope, and implications of the influx of private equity takeovers in the United States media sector in the last decade. The strategies and aims of private equity firms are explained in the context of the financial landscape that has allowed them to flourish; their aggressive expansion into media ownership is outlined in detail. Particular attention is paid to the public interest concerns raised by private equity media ownership relating to the frenzied nature of the buyout market, profit maximization strategies, and the heavy debt burdens imposed on acquired firms. The article concludes with discussion of …

Competition And Interest Rates Lecture Notes, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Competition and the theory of interest rates by Anwar Shaikh (Unpublished manuscript, April 27, 2009) (p. 2)
• Theories of interest rates by Anwar Shaikh (Unpublished manuscript, May 14, 2008) (p. 16)
• Calculating bond ROR by Anwar Shaikh (Unpublished handwritten notes, August 12, unknown year) (p. 43).

Stock Returns And Equity Premium Evidence Using Dividend Price Ratios And Dividend Yields In Malaysia, David Allen, Imbarine Bujang

Research outputs pre 2011

The empirical findings of Goyal and Welch (2003) and Cochrane (2006) suggested that dividend yields and dividend ratios are robust predictors of annual stock returns and annual equity premia. However, Goyal and Welch (2003) asserted that many researchers considered dividend yields to be a good predictor for the equity premium before the 1990s but not after the 1990s. We apply these models to the Malaysian market. Our general findings suggest that the in-sample performances of the KLCI Malaysian datasets present similar results to those predicted by Goyal and Welch (2003, 2006). Meanwhile, the Mincer-Zarnowitz (1969) regression forecast tests for out …

Conditional Beta Capital Asset Pricing Model (Capm) And Duration Dependence Tests, David E. Allen, Imbarine Bujang

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper uses a sample of 50 companies continuously listed on Main Board of Bursa Malaysia from January 1994 until December 2001 and uses duration dependence tests whilst applying two asset pricing models based on the CAPM; the two Factor Model developed by Fama and French (F&F)(1998) and Ferson, Sarkissian and Simin’s (FSS) (2008) conditional beta model applied to estimate the conditional beta of CAPM as to generate the positive and negative abnormal returns. The findings suggest that both the Log Logistic and Weibull hazard models seem to support the existence of negative duration dependence for both positive and negative …

Pricing Options By Simulation Using Realized Volatility, David E. Allen, Michael Mcaleer, Marcel Scharth

Research outputs pre 2011

A growing literature advocates the use of high-frequency data for the purpose of volatility estimation. However, despite the successes in modeling the conditional mean of realized volatility empirical evaluations of this class of models outside the realm of short run forecasting is limited. How can realized volatility be used for pricing options? What are the modeling qualities introduced by realized volatility models for pricing derivatives? In this short paper, we propose an options pricing framework based on a new realized volatility model that captures all the relevant empirical regularities of the realized volatility series of the S&P 500 index. We …

Areit Returns From 1990-2008: A Multi-Factor Approach, Jaime Yong, David E. Allen, Lee K. Lim

Research outputs pre 2011

Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts (AREITs) have experienced substantial growth and popularity since 1993. Amongst the major themes surrounding this sector during this time, were the increased attention from institutional investors, the trend towards and away from property-type diversification, significant merger and acquisition activities which led to increased trust size, the debate between internally versus externally managed trust structures, increased gearing levels, and the focus towards diversification into international property assets. While the AREIT sector had benefit from the increased flow of funds from institutional investors during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the recent impact of the 2008 global financial …

Impact Of The Financial Crisis On Australian Bank Default Risk, Robert Powell, David E. Allen

Research outputs pre 2011

Australian Banks are widely considered to have remained in far better shape during the financial crisis than their global counterparts. The Australian banking sector has retained solid earnings and good capitalisation. Indeed, the 4 major Australian banks are part of a select group of only 8 global banks who hold AA credit ratings. Nonetheless, Australian banks have experienced significant deterioration in market values of assets in line with global financial market fluctuations. The KMV / Merton structural model is widely used by Australian and global banks to measure default probabilities of their customers based on market asset values and debt …

Bonds, Stocks Or Dollars? Do Voters Care About Capital Markets In Brazil And Mexico, Tony Petros Spanakos, Lucio Remuzat Renno Jr.

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

How does vote intention in presidential elections vary according to the economic conditions of a country, especially indicators of the financial market? Does the state of the economy, both its fundamentals as well as capital market, affect variation in candidates’ percentage of vote intention in national polls? This paper tests how economic indicators influence vote intention in presidential elections in two emerging markets: Brazil and Mexico. The presidential elections of 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2006 in Brazil and 2000 and 2006 in Mexico are analyzed using all poll returns for each electoral period and corresponding economic data. The paper finds …

Markov Switching Var Model Of Speculative Pressure: An Application To The Asian Financial Crisis, Gregorio Iii Alfredo Vargas

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Markov switching models with time-varying transition probabilities address the limitations of the earlier methods in the early warning system literature on currency crises. Most of the Markov switching models in the literature are largely based on univariate models of exchange rate fluctuations. In this thesis, the components of the index of speculative pressure are modeled using the Markov Switching VAR with time-varying transition probabilities of Martinez Peria (2002). Two approaches, both of which are derived from this model, are taken to determine the probability of a currency crisis: the probability of a turbulent regime and the expected value of the …