Finance Commons^™

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 …

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 …

East Asian Economies And Financial Globalization In The Post-Crisis World, Joshua Aizenman, Hiro Ito

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper assesses the East Asian Economies’ openness to cross-border capital flows and exchange rate arrangements in the past decades, with the main focus on emerging market economies. Using Mundell’s trilemma indexes, we note that the convergence of the three policy goals in East Asia toward a “middle ground” pre-dates the convergence of these indices in other regions. Another more recent development involves the high level of international reserve (IR) holdings–a feature that is known as the most distinct characteristic of Asian EMEs. Financial globalization seems to have made asset prices and interest rates in Asian EMEs more vulnerable to …

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 …

Financial Integration In Asean-5, Laura Grace Gabriella, Revathy Suryanarayana, Vania Esady

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

The financial integration in South East Asia has varied over time. This paper focuses on three periods: before, during, and after the global financial crisis in 2008. This paper finds that ASEAN-5 countries have indeed taken a step towards financial integration. While we do not observe any (cointegrating) long-run relationships between the ASEAN-5 countries, we find that there has been a significant increase in the volatility spillovers between them. This is particularly true in the recovery period following the global financial crisis.

Determination Of Competition Conventional Bank In Banking Industry In Indonesia, Ciplis Gema Qori'ah

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

The aim of this study is to determine the level of concentration and competition behavior of conventional commercial banks in the national banking industry. This study focuses on descriptive analysis and quantitative analysis using panel data regression for 9 conventional commercial banks during 2003-2014. Results of eclectic analysis are supposed that behavior of banks is less competitive due to high levels of concentration in the banking industry. While the results of panel data regression show that the variables of bank interest expense, operating expense, other operating incomes and variable of loanable funds significantly affect the income of conventional banks.

What Are The Challenges In Designing An Effective Personal Income Tax System?, Raeni Raeni

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This article aims to examine the challenges of designing individual's income tax systems in general and particularly to observe taxpayers behaviour in developing countries. This study used case study approach to gain in depth understanding type of taxpayers attitude towards personal income tax systems. Based on the analyses, tax behaviour, which comprises the perception of fairness and motivation to comply, attracts urgent challenges in designing effective tax on personal income in every country and mainly underdeveloped countries. Every human being in each country has their social pattern towards tax policy. When the individual perception of fairness is significant, it will …

Courts And Sovereigns In The Pari Passu Goldmines, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

U.S. federal court rulings against Argentina since 2012 have turned the pari passu clause in sovereign bond contracts into the most promising debt collection tool against immune governments since the days of gunboat diplomacy. The large literature on pari passu (“equal step” in Latin) assumes that the clause had not been used for enforcement before the late 1990s, and that it was first construed by a Belgian court in a case against Peru in the year 2000. The Belgian decision was criticized for wrongly concluding that pari passu promised ratable payment to all holders of Peru’s external debt. A decade …

Ez Timeout: The Business Plan, Simbarashe Chirara

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Economic Impact Of Legalizing Retail Alcohol Sales In Randolph County, Katherine A. Deck, Mervin Jebaraj

Publications and Presentations

Converting from a dry county to wet county status would have a number of tangible and intangible economic benefits for Randolph County. Legal retail alcohol sales are a signal of a contemporary economic development environment. Quantifying the value of that perception is quite difficult, but it is entirely possible to estimate sales effects, tax collections, and other economic impacts of becoming a wet county. This study was conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research to assess the magnitude of those economic effects.

Economic Impact Of Legalizing Retail Alcohol Sales In Crawford County, Katherine A. Deck, Mervin Jebaraj

Publications and Presentations

Converting from a dry county to wet county status would have a number of tangible and intangible economic benefits for Crawford County. Legal retail alcohol sales are a signal of a contemporary economic development environment. Quantifying the value of that perception is quite difficult, but it is entirely possible to estimate sales effects, tax collections, and other economic impacts of becoming a wet county. This study was conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research to assess the magnitude of those economic effects.

Economic Impact Of Legalizing Retail Alcohol Sales In Johnson County, Katherine A. Deck, Mervin Jebaraj

Publications and Presentations

Converting from a dry county to wet county status would have a number of tangible and intangible economic benefits for Johnson County. Legal retail alcohol sales are a signal of a contemporary economic development environment. Quantifying the value of that perception is quite difficult, but it is entirely possible to estimate sales effects, tax collections, and other economic impacts of becoming a wet county. This study was conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research to assess the magnitude of those economic effects.

Economic Impact Of Legalizing Retail Alcohol Sales In Little River County, Katherine A. Deck, Mervin Jebaraj

Publications and Presentations

Converting from a dry county to wet county status would have a number of tangible and intangible economic benefits for Little River County. Legal retail alcohol sales are a signal of a contemporary economic development environment. Quantifying the value of that perception is quite difficult, but it is entirely possible to estimate sales effects, tax collections, and other economic impacts of becoming a wet county. This study was conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research to assess the magnitude of those economic effects.

Economic Impact Of Legalizing Retail Alcohol Sales In Independence County, Katherine A. Deck, Mervin Jebaraj

Publications and Presentations

Converting from a dry county to wet county status would have a number of tangible and intangible economic benefits for Independence County. Legal retail alcohol sales are a signal of a contemporary economic development environment. Quantifying the value of that perception is quite difficult, but it is entirely possible to estimate sales effects, tax collections, and other economic impacts of becoming a wet county. This study was conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research to assess the magnitude of those economic effects.

Kila Wakati Ni Wakati Wa Chai: Mapping The Regional Commodity Chain Of Tea In The Village Of Sagara, Rebecca Gourlay

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Tracing the commodity chain of tea from leaf to cup is a complex process that involves many actors at the production, distribution, processing and consumption levels. This study focuses on the regional tea commodity chain in the village of Sagara in the West Usambara Mountains of Tanzania in order to help explain the change in livelihood of tea as a cash crop. Semi-structured interviews with tea farmers were used to gain perspective on the nuances of the regional tea commodity chain at the production level. Several external actors, including Tanzania Smallholder Tea Development Agency (TSHTDA) and the Tea Research Institute …

Is It Worth Your Time? Biggest Contributors To Starting Salary For Bryant University Students, Brittany Sarza

Honors Projects in Finance

Students often wonder what curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities contribute to initial starting salary. Previous studies on this topic have indicated that the factors GPA, major/field of study, gender, and having an internship all increase starting salary. Prior research showed a positive and significant relationship between GPA and starting salary (Jones and Jackson, 1990), fields that require mathematical abilities had higher starting salaries in comparison to those fields without quantitative abilities (Paglin and Rufolo, 1990), 95% of the gender gap in starting salaries with women earning less than men could be attributed to college majors selected (McDonald and Thorton, 2007), …

Women In Microfinance And Its Social Effects On The Community: A Case Study In Hue, Vietnam, Madison Spigel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Microfinance, a form of micro lending with no collateral, has been used as a way to finance the poor since the foundation of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh by Muhammad Yunus in 1983. Since the Doi Moi period, the Vietnamese government has showed great interest in microfinance and has made this loan system available to both its rural and urban citizens through organizations like the Women‟s Union. Through detailed surveys and semi-structured in depth interviews of both women in the Union as well as related parties in Hue, I was able to study how microfinance is used by these women …

From Hard Money To Branch Banking California Banking In The Gold Rush Economy, Larry Schweikart, Lynne Pierson Doti

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

In Gold Rush–era California, banking and the financial sector evolved in often distinctive ways because of the Gold Rush economy. More importantly, the abundance of gold on the West Coast provided an interesting test case for some of the critical economic arguments of the day, especially for those deriving from the descending—but still powerful—positions of the “hard money” Jacksonians.

Essays On The Equity Risk Premium, Mohamed Mehdi Rahoui

Finance Theses & Dissertations

The equity risk premium (ERP) is an essential component of any asset pricing model both for academics and practitioners alike. Nevertheless, the financial literature does not accord much attention to the ERP estimation issues (Damodaran, 2015). The first chapter of this dissertation gives a summary of the recent literature review on the subject of the ERP. The second chapter explores four of the most commonly cited models in literature for estimating the ERP: the Historical Mean of Realized Returns Model (HMRRM), the Dividend Discount Model (DDM), the Free Cash Flow Model (FCFM), and the Sharpe Ratio Model (SRM). The results …

Benchmarking And Currency Risk, Massimo Massa, Yanbo Wang, Hong Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We show that the currency risk embedded in the benchmarks of international mutual funds negatively affects fund performance. More specifically, a high benchmark-implied currency risk induces funds to invest in markets with less volatile currencies, leading to a higher degree of currency concentration in portfolio holdings. This currency concentration, however, departs from the optimal equity allocation strategy across countries and reduces fund performance. We document that funds resorting to high currency concentrations underperform funds with low currency concentrations by as much as 1%-2% per year.