David Wilson and James Brau, Finance Our project sought to test traditional theories of capital structure (e.g., Ang & Peterson, 1986, Rajan & Zingales, 1995, Titman, & Wessels, 1988 DeAngelo & Masulis,1980, Leland, 1994, and Modigliani & Miller, 1958) through the analysis of a naturally occurring experiment produced among various transportation industry sectors (i.e. rail, […]
The Term Structure of the Equity Risk Premium
Bryan Seegmiller and Brian Boyer, Department of Finance A recent paper by Binsbergen, Brandt, and Koijen (2012)i examined the equity risk-premium on short- versus long-term dividend claims, providing evidence that the large size of the overall equity risk premium was due mostly to the even higher risk-premium earned on short-term dividends. The implication is that […]
The Impact of Government Loan Expansion on Post-Graduation Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study
Mark Johnson and Taylor Nadauld, Department of Finance Introduction The availability of higher education is linked to more affluent and prosperous societies. In the United States, policy makers have attempted to make post-secondary education readily available through grants and loans. In the past two decades student loans have exploded to become the second largest segment […]
Mergers and Acquisitions Document Vector Space Analysis
Steven Fortney and Faculty Mentor: Karl Diether, Finance Brief Overview of Methodology and Results This project involved looking at Mergers and Acquisitions and a textual analysis of their SEC filings. We index, clean and match documents in the SEC EDGAR database to the CRSP and Compustat databases in order to consider multiple instruments for “specificity” […]
Estimating the Short-Run Supply Curve of Higher Education
Carter Davis and Taylor Nadauld, Finance Department The original project that I set out to research with this ORCA grant was to investigate how the real estate bubble spread leading up to the financial crisis, using an incredible 90 gigabyte dataset of mortgage information. Two unfortunate events occurred during the course of this project: the […]
Bankruptcy in Utah
Ryan and Rebecca Wilson with Dr. Ned Hill, Marriot School of Business In this study, we analyzed 100 randomly selected Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases filed in 2002 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Utah. In addition to these cases, we personally interviewed five local bankruptcy attorneys and court officers addressing the issue […]
Insider Trading in Taiwan
Gabby Hsin-Yo Wang and Dr. Michel J. Pinegar, Finance Professor, the Marriott School of Management Insider trading has been a much-rumored phenomenon in Taiwan. In a newspaper article headlined Bitter Fruit of Stock Investment, the author states, “…Taiwan has a stock market culture which is — on the surface at least — quite egalitarian in […]
The January Effect: An Empirical Test of the Existence of a Stock Market Anomaly
T. Lance Toler and Dr. Steven R. Thorley, Finance and Managerial Economics The idea of capitalism is based on the theory of an efficient market, or of an “invisible hand” that works tirelessly to distribute resources in the most efficient way. The stock market version of this idea is called the Efficient Market Hypothesis. This […]
Impact of Corruption in a Developing Economy The Example of Armenia
Sevak Tsaturyan and Dr. Phillip Bryson, Institute of Business Management In our research we have attempted to address the negative impacts of corruption on economic development, trade and foreign direct investment in developing economies. Historically, it has been argued that political corruption is a very significant hindrance of economic development, especially in transitional economies. Economists […]
Expected Market Returns and Political Factors Using GMM
Ian J. Wright and Dr. Keith Vorkink, Business Management Investors, economists and financial analysts are constantly seeking to develop models that may help them anticipate what the stock market will do and how it functions. They do this so that they may take advantage of any market anomalies as soon as they appear and try […]