The Discreet Trader,
2015
Bryant University
The Discreet Trader, Seth Wing
Honors Projects in Finance
This paper examines insider trading, specifically trades by corporate insiders around quarterly earnings announcements. Announcements were broken up into three categories: earnings above analyst expectations, earnings below expectations, and earnings in line with expectations. Trade data was collected from the thirty companies of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 2012-’13. The trades were sorted by purchases and sales by date and analyzed with the earnings report of which the trades were made. Only trades in the interval from twenty days before the announcement date to twenty days after the announcement date were considered. The prediction was that corporate insiders would …
Intergenerational Groups: How They Benefit The Workplace,
2015
Bryant University
Intergenerational Groups: How They Benefit The Workplace, Caitlyn May
Honors Projects in Management
With intergenerational groups becoming more common in the workplace, research is still focusing on how to manage working in intergenerational groups rather than how to promote the benefits of using intergenerational groups. Generations have different work values and attitudes. However, it is unclear whether putting diverse generations together will lead to better outcomes in a team setting. Using surveys and interviews of a convenience sample of all age groups, the study examines how generational perception influences the behavior and desire to work with other generations. Although there are stereotypes linked to each generation, respondents still desire to work with multiple …
Are They Worth Reading? An In-Depth Analysis Of Online Trackers’ Privacy Policies,
2015
Cleveland State University
Are They Worth Reading? An In-Depth Analysis Of Online Trackers’ Privacy Policies, Candice Hoke, Lorrie Faith Cranor, Pedro Giovanni Leon, Alyssa Au
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
We analyzed the privacy policies of 75 online tracking companies with the goal of assessing whether they contain information relevant for users to make privacy decisions. We compared privacy policies from large companies, companies that are members of self-regulatory organizations, and nonmember companies and found that many of them are silent with regard to important consumer-relevant practices including the collection and use of sensitive information and linkage of tracking data with personally-identifiable information. We evaluated these policies against self-regulatory guidelines and found that many policies are not fully compliant. Furthermore, the overly general requirements established in those guidelines allow companies …
Reference-Dependence Effects In Benefit Assessment: Beyond The Wta-Wtp Dichotomy And Wta-Wtp Ratios,
2015
Vanderbilt University Law School
Reference-Dependence Effects In Benefit Assessment: Beyond The Wta-Wtp Dichotomy And Wta-Wtp Ratios, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Willingness-to-pay (WTP) values and willingness-to-accept (WTA) values have received considerable attention, but the role of reference-dependence effects is more diverse. Policies involving cost and risk may have reference point effects with respect to both cost and risk, leading to four potential valuation measures. Experimental evidence for water quality policies suggests that the cost reference effects are particularly influential in that context. There is, however, no evidence of significant reference effects for labor market estimates of the value of a statistical life. Sound application of benefit values other than WTP measures requires pertinent empirical evidence and an assessment of the underlying …
Do Opposites Detract? Intrahousehold Preference Heterogeneity And Inefficient Strategic Savings,
2015
Dartmouth College
Do Opposites Detract? Intrahousehold Preference Heterogeneity And Inefficient Strategic Savings, Simone Schaner
Dartmouth Scholarship
This paper uses a field experiment to test whether intrahousehold heterogeneity in discount factors leads to inefficient strategic savings behavior. I gave married couples in rural Kenya the opportunity to open both joint and individual bank accounts at randomly assigned interest rates. I also directly elicited discount factors for all individuals in the experiment. Couples who are well matched on discount factors are less likely to use costly individual accounts and respond robustly to relative rates of return between accounts, while their poorly matched peers do not. Consequently, poorly matched couples forgo significantly more interest earnings on their savings. (JEL …
Economic Analysis Of Flight Delay,
2015
Pepperdine University
Economic Analysis Of Flight Delay, Nathan D. Boettcher
Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium
Our project began as an investigation into the phenomenon of flight delay. We approached this problem with two goals in mind. First, we used mathematical statistics and econometric methods to develop a predictive model of flight delay. An improved forecasting process has obvious benefits for customers, and would additionally shed light on the factors which airports and airlines should seek to change in order to reduce flight delay. Our secondary goal was to complement this predictive research with a theoretical analysis of the incentive structure that consumers and producers face. We limited the scope of this model to delayed flights …
Analyzing Options Market Toxicity And The Black-Scholes Formula In The Presence Of Jump Diffusion As Simulated With Agent-Based Modeling,
2015
Collin County Community College District
Analyzing Options Market Toxicity And The Black-Scholes Formula In The Presence Of Jump Diffusion As Simulated With Agent-Based Modeling, William D. Elliott
Undergraduate Economic Review
This paper presents new and significant research on the Black-Scholes Formula using the agent-based modeling software NetLogo. The software was used to simulate an options market subject to jump diffusion. Since the widely-used Black-Scholes Formula has at times proven unreliable, this research sought to understand circumstances that render the formula ineffective. It was hypothesized that markets would become difficult to trade in or “toxic” at low price volatility but high jump volatility. Further, it was predicted that kurtosis would alert the presence of toxic markets by accurately and consistently conveying whether jump diffusion was present.
Signed Peer Reviews As A Means To Improve Scholarly Publishing,
2015
University of Brest
Signed Peer Reviews As A Means To Improve Scholarly Publishing, Linwood H. Pendleton
Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics
Peer review is a necessary process with a long history of complaints, including over-solicitation of a small number of reviewers, delays, inadequate numbers of reviewers, and a lack of incentives to provide strong reviews or avoid reviews with little helpful information for the author. In the era of Web-based distribution of research, through working paper or project reports, anonymous peer reviews are much less likely. The Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics will use signed peer reviews and an open communication process among authors, reviewers, and editors. This approach, to be developed over time, should lead to stronger communication of …
Retirement Planning Among Middle-Aged And Older Hispanics,
2015
Pepperdine University
Retirement Planning Among Middle-Aged And Older Hispanics, Luisa Blanco, Emma Aguila, Arturo Gongora, Beverly Weidmer, O. Kenrik Duru
School of Public Policy Working Papers
The goal of this study is to deepen the understanding of how middle age and older Hispanics plan for retirement, where we conducted four focus groups in the Los Angeles area with a total of 38 participants. Our study provides interesting findings, specifically for women since 84 percent of the participants were female. We find that that most participants, whether they were already retired or not, are not well prepared for retirement since they have been unable to save for retirement and have not made specific retirement plans, such as determining desired retirement age, estimating retirement budget, and collecting information …
Game, Set, And Match: Do Women And Men Perform Differently In Competitive Situations?,
2015
Old Dominion University
Game, Set, And Match: Do Women And Men Perform Differently In Competitive Situations?, Michael Jetter, Jay K. Walker
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper analyzes potential gender differences in competitive environments using a sample of over 100,000 professional tennis matches. We focus on two phenomena of the labor and sports economics literature: the hot-hand and clutch-player effects. First, we find strong evidence for the hot-hand (cold-hand) effect. Every additional win in the most recent ten Tour matches raises the likelihood of prevailing in the current encounter by 3.1 (males) to 3.3 percentage points (females). Second, top male and female players are excelling in Grand Slam tournaments, arguably the most important events in tennis. For men, we also find evidence for top players …
Social Transformation, Group Reputation, And Reputation Matching,
2015
Beijing Normal University
Social Transformation, Group Reputation, And Reputation Matching, Huan Wang, Yi Zhang
Research Collection School Of Economics
Unlike in small communities where one can strategically interact with another according to the latter’s individual reputation, players in complex societies often have to interact with strangers whose individual reputations cannot be easily acquired. They often have to infer their counterparts’ characteristics from the latters’ group reputation to simplify decision making. We provide a game theoretical model of reputation matching concerning corruption during social transformation. We show that the regime change from acquaintance matching to anonymous matching tends to cause rampant corruption and the effectiveness of anti-corruption policies is non-monotonic with respect to the supervision efforts.
Fertility And Rural Electrification In Bangladesh,
2015
Singapore Management University
Fertility And Rural Electrification In Bangladesh, Tomoki Fujii, Abu S. Shonchoy
Research Collection School Of Economics
We use a panel dataset from Bangladesh to examine the relationship between fertility and the adoption of electricity with the latter instrumented by infrastructure development and the quality of service delivery. We find that the adoption of electricity reduces fertility, and this impact is more pronounced when the household already has two or more children. This observation can be explained by a simple household model of time use, in which adoption of electricity affects only the optimal number of children but not necessarily current fertility behavior if the optimal number has not yet been reached.
Love, Money And Old Age Support: Does Parental Matchmaking Matter?,
2015
Singapore Management University
Love, Money And Old Age Support: Does Parental Matchmaking Matter?, Fali Huang, Ginger Zhe Jin, Lixin Colin Xu
Research Collection School Of Economics
Parental involvement in matchmaking may distort the choice of spouse because parents are willing to substitute love for market and household production, which are more sharable between parents and their children. This paper finds supportive evidence in a survey of Chinese couples. In both rural and urban areas, parent matchmaking is associated with less marital harmony between the couple, more submissive wives, and a stronger belief in old age support for the son. In contrast, its association with couple income differs by rural and urban regions, perhaps because of differences in earning opportunities and in the enforcement of the one-child …
The Economic Impact Of The University Of Arkansas,
2015
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
The Economic Impact Of The University Of Arkansas, Katherine A. Deck, Mervin Jebaraj
Publications and Presentations
As the state’s flagship institution of higher education, the University of Arkansas delivers a significant economic impact to Arkansas. In 2014, an impact in excess of $1.2 billion came from the University via operations, construction, technology transfer, student expenditures, and visitor spending. The University of Arkansas has a substantial influence on the direction of the state’s economy by fulfilling its mission of developing human capital, growing ideas, and transmitting knowledge to the public.
Sustainable Farming Versus Ethanol: A Comparison Of Energy Use,
2015
University of Denver
Sustainable Farming Versus Ethanol: A Comparison Of Energy Use, Brandon John Weiland
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The subsidization of corn-ethanol has proven to not live up to the original promises made when it was promoted as gasoline additive. With research pointing to ethanol as a source of increased greenhouse gases emissions and other pollution while merely changing energy consumption, not decreasing it, an alternative that achieves the original goals of is sought. I propose that sustainable farming practices have the ability to decrease the United States’ dependence on fossil fuels while decreasing emissions and pollution related to farming. By looking at the adoption of 3 year rotations, fertilizer banding, and zero tillage farming in Iowa, Illinois, …
A Prospect Theory Of Power Transition: Why Power Transition Does Not Imply War?,
2015
New York University
A Prospect Theory Of Power Transition: Why Power Transition Does Not Imply War?, Huan Wang, Yi Zhang
Research Collection School Of Economics
We present a prospect theory model to explain why power transitions do not necessarily lead to war. We find that three major mechanisms prevent the occurrence of potential power transition wars. First, the dual boiling frog effects occurring in the middle range of capability catching-up rate prevent a dominant state from preempting and a rising state from challenging the other side. Second, divergent expectations for favorable comparative growth advantage motivate both parties to keep the status quo. Third, the concerns of relative advantage deterioration over a third party in the post-war power structure help deter both parties from starting a …
Would You Choose To Be Happy? Tradeoffs Between Happiness And The Other Dimensions Of Life In A Large Population Survey,
2015
Duke Law School
Would You Choose To Be Happy? Tradeoffs Between Happiness And The Other Dimensions Of Life In A Large Population Survey, Matthew D. Adler, Paula Dolan, Georgios Kavetsos
Faculty Scholarship
A large literature documents the correlates and causes of subjective well-being, or happiness. But few studies have investigated whether people choose happiness. Is happiness all that people want from life, or are they willing to sacrifice it for other attributes, such as income and health? Tackling this question has largely been the preserve of philosophers. In this article, we find out just how much happiness matters to ordinary citizens. Our sample consists of nearly 13,000 members of the UK and US general populations. We ask them to choose between, and make judgments over, lives that are high (or low) in …
How Are Brand Names Of Chinese Companies Perceived By Americans?,
2015
Rollins College
How Are Brand Names Of Chinese Companies Perceived By Americans?, Marc Fetscherin, Adamantios Diamantopoilos, Allan K.K. Chan, Rachael Abbott
Faculty Publications
Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to conduct an experimental design of Americans’ preferences for the English version of Chinese brand names by drawing from prior research in psychology, linguistics and marketing. The impact of string length and semantic relevance to English on meaningfulness, memorability and likeability of brand names from Chinese companies was assessed. Design/methodology/approach – A 2 × 2 experimental design was used, whereby brand names are categorized by string length (short vs long) and semantic relevance to English (with vs without). Respondents’ perception of the Chinese language in terms of pronounceability, language familiarity and language …
Investigating The Endogeneity Of Risk Attitudes: Experimental Evidence Involving Cooperation And Competition,
2015
Colby College
Investigating The Endogeneity Of Risk Attitudes: Experimental Evidence Involving Cooperation And Competition, Erik Solli
Honors Theses
Individual decision making is at the core of microeconomics. Rarely, however, are decisions made in environments without some element of uncertainty or even in isolation. While people may differ in their inherent willingness to take on risk, their preferences could change when new information is learned or a new relationship is fostered. I designed an experiment in which participants were asked to make investment decisions involving different levels of risk. The participants completed task between these gambles which allowed me to introduce competitive and collaborative relationships. I was interested in: (1) understanding the factors that are important to explaining risk …
Taking Down The Totem: A Post-Keynesian Behavioral Critique Of Neoclassical Economics,
2015
Connecticut College
Taking Down The Totem: A Post-Keynesian Behavioral Critique Of Neoclassical Economics, Gideon Olshansky
Economics Honors Papers
This thesis critiques neoclassical economic theory. In each chapter, with the exception of the last two, I will examine a different neoclassical theory and reveal its lack of realism, and how said theory cannot apply to the real economy. With each critique, I show how neoclassical economic theories are built vindicate free market capitalism. Therefore, neoclassical theory cannot actually understand the real economy, and anticipate its movements. The lack of realism in their theories, and staunch commitment to free markets, suggests that neoclassical theories should not be at the forefront of economic policy decisions and education programs. In the last …
