Matching Items (14)
Description
User privacy in the current society is at risk. This project will emphasize the importance of calling attention to data privacy issues in regard to companies selling user data.
ContributorsBerg, Dylan Robert (Author) / Sopha, Matthew (Thesis director) / Jordan, Erin (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
This thesis details our experience assisting BASE Equity Partners, a private equity firm based in New York City, on three prospective agricultural dealership deals over the course of this past academic year. The firm is currently structured as a Fundless Sponsor. This distinct structural trait is common for a type of private equity firm known among practitioners as pledge funds. This creates an interesting element for our experience as there is very limited academic research on these types of firms, which, since the Great Recession, have become popular players in middle-market private equity deals. We, first, provide some historical context on pledge funds and identify their primary differences with traditional private equity. The remainder of the paper documents our experience working on the agricultural dealership deals. We have organized this portion after the manner in which we received assignments. We go into detail on the specific projects with which we were tasked, our interactions with the partners and the major takeaways we had from this learning experience. This thesis paper will enrich the academic knowledge regarding pledge funds—and private equity generally—by documenting a real experience of what it is like performing analyst-level tasks at a real firm. Additionally, we were privy to information that is highly confidential, and though we have protected the confidentiality of the companies through pseudonyms and redaction of confidential material, all of the financial data shown, models provided and qualitative discussion is real.
ContributorsTang, Ivan (Co-author) / Johnson, Bradley (Co-author) / Panosian, Tro (Co-author) / Simonson, Mark (Thesis director) / Bonadurer, Werner (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Does a gender earnings gap exist in Norway and the United States? Overtime, the male to female pay gap has reduced. As jobs have become more gender neutral and industrialized, males and females have been given equal rights to work. However, despite these seemingly dramatic generalizations, the pay between females and males has not equalized. It appears that a woman still faces significant obstacles to receive the same pay and respect that her male counterpart is awarded. To understand more about the gender pay gap, we must also understand the attitudes and behaviors in the work place. Adding this perspective as well analyzing the time in which a woman might be away from work to give attention to motherhood are all factors that may contribute to the gender earnings gap. Understanding these factors assist in the efforts to achieve wage equality and reduce wage differentials between males and females. A cross cultural analysis between the United States and Norway will provide additional valuable insights. The culture and economy in Norway present a stark difference to the United States. In order to better evaluate the problems and to define solutions for the earnings gap, it is essential to analyze an economy that inherently gives many more benefits to the working class.
ContributorsPage, Karlee Ann (Author) / Shropshire, Christine (Thesis director) / Jordan, Erin (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Regulations in the financial sector of the United States have had the same purpose of protecting the economy and consumers since their modern establishment. Deregulation in the 1980’s led to an environment that allowed banks to take on high risk choices. This, among other economic circumstances, lead to the 2008 Great Recession that brought down the United States and global economies. The government was forced to act with bailouts to keep many big banks from shutting down. Some were bailed out and others failed to keep the economy stable. In June 2009, the recession was over, but the recovery process was not. To help prevent another crash, the Dodd Frank Act was passed in July 2010. The act is a long and complex legislation with the main purpose of enforcing regulations to keep banks in check to prevent another recession. The Act’s enforcement was felt immediately, forcing businesses to adapt to its regulation standards. Opinions on Dodd-Frank are mixed. Some see it serving its purpose with regulating the financial sector and others see it being a costly burden that has slowed the progress of the economy. As the economy continues to evolve, we can expect changes to the regulations on the financial sector which will continue to cause businesses to adapt, change, and modify their operations.
ContributorsCastro, Jonathan Patrick (Author) / Jordan, Erin (Thesis director) / Sadusky, Brian (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This paper discusses merger arbitrage as a trading strategy, the benefits of allocating it into a diversified portfolio, and a method of replicating its returns through an alternative investment strategy (writing uncovered index put options). It discusses the approach to implementation, along with the risk and reward profile of the strategy. The paper entitled Characteristics of Risk and Return in Merger arbitrage is used as a basis for the research approach. An up-to-date time series analysis is constructed utilizing the HFRMAI index (a hedge fund index that mirrors a sizable sample of merger risk arbitrage transactions) as a benchmark for testing the effectiveness of the replication strategy (PUT index). Lastly, a live merger arbitrage strategy is executed on a current M&A transaction (the LVMH and Tiffany & Co. acquisition) to assess the acquirer and target firms’ stock volatility and profits or losses.
ContributorsArana, Cynthia (Author) / Bonadurer, Werner (Thesis director) / Licon, Lawrence (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Investment banking is an industry that has historically had a low representation of minorities. Diversity has become a common buzz word among human resource professionals and American firms have worked hard over the last decades to diversify their ranks. The positive effect that diversity of thought has on performance has fueled a high demand for increasingly diverse and inclusive work environments. Conversely, investment banking (typically considered a profession for upper-class, white males) has not made any strides in regard to attracting more diverse talent to Wall Street. Wall Street firms have been unsuccessful in attracting students of color and women to the industry. In this study, interest levels of Black students will be explored to understand if the shortage of Black bankers is due to supply rather than demand.
ContributorsMemberr, Loliya (Author) / McDaniel, Cara (Thesis director) / Bonadurer, Werner (Committee member) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, banking regulators have been taking a more active role in pursing greater financial stability. One area of focus has been on Wall Street banks' leverage lending practices which include leveraged lending activities to fund leveraged buyouts. In March 2013, the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued guidance urging banks to avoid financing leveraged buyouts in most industries that would put total debt on a company of more than six times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda. Our research, using data on all leveraged buyouts (with EBITDA >$20 million) issued after the guidance, sets out to explain the elements banks consider when exceeding leverage limitations. Initially, we hypothesized that since deals over 6x leverage had higher amounts of debt, they were riskier deals, which would carry over to other risk measures such as yield to maturity on debt and company credit ratings. To analyze this, we obtained a large data set with all LBO deals in the past three years and ran difference-in-means tests on a number of variables such as deal size, credit rating and yield to maturity to determine if deals over 6x leverage had significantly different risk characteristics than deals under 6x leverage. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that deals over 6x leverage had significantly less risk, mainly demonstrated by lower average YTMs, than deals under 6x. One possible explanation of this might be that banks, wanting to ensure they are not fined, will only go through with a deal over 6x leverage if other risk metrics such as yield to maturity are well below average.
ContributorsKing, Adam (Co-author) / Lukemire, Sean (Co-author) / McAleer, Stephen (Co-author) / Simonson, Mark (Thesis director) / Bonadurer, Werner (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This thesis takes the form of a market research report with the goal of analyzing the implications of the United Kingdom (UK) leaving the European Union (EU) (known as “Brexit”) on London’s office commercial real estate market. The ultimate goal of this report is to make a prediction, firmly grounded in quantitative and qualitative research conducted over the past several months, as to the direction of London’s commercial real estate market going forward (post-Brexit). Within the commercial real estate sector, this paper narrows its focus to the office segment of the London market.
Understanding the political landscape is crucial to formulating a reasonable prediction as to the future of the London market. Aside from research reports and articles, our main insights into the political direction of Brexit come from our recordings from meetings in March of 2017 with two high-ranking members of Parliament and one member of the House of Lords—all of whom are members of the Tory Party (the meetings being held under the condition of anonymity). The below analysis will be followed by a discussion of the economics of Brexit, primarily focusing on the economic risks and uncertainties which have emerged after the vote, and which currently exist today. Such risks include the UK losing its financial passporting rights, weakening GDP and currency value, the potential for a reduction in foreign direct investment (FDI), and the potential loss of the service sector in the city of London due to not being able to access the European Single Market.
The report will shift focus to analyzing three competing viewpoints of the direction of the London market based on recordings from interviews of stakeholders in the London real estate market. One being an executive of one of the largest REITs in the UK, another being the Global Head of Real Estate at a top asset management firm, and another being a director at a large property consulting firm. The report includes these differing “sub-theses” in order to try to make sense of the vast market uncertainties post-Brexit as well as to contrast their viewpoints with where the market is currently and with the report’s investment recommendation.
The remainder of the report will consist of the methods used for analyzing market trends including how the data was modeled in order to make the investment recommendation. The report will analyze real estate and market metrics pre-Brexit, immediately after the vote, post-Brexit, and will conclude with future projections encapsulating the investment recommendation.
Understanding the political landscape is crucial to formulating a reasonable prediction as to the future of the London market. Aside from research reports and articles, our main insights into the political direction of Brexit come from our recordings from meetings in March of 2017 with two high-ranking members of Parliament and one member of the House of Lords—all of whom are members of the Tory Party (the meetings being held under the condition of anonymity). The below analysis will be followed by a discussion of the economics of Brexit, primarily focusing on the economic risks and uncertainties which have emerged after the vote, and which currently exist today. Such risks include the UK losing its financial passporting rights, weakening GDP and currency value, the potential for a reduction in foreign direct investment (FDI), and the potential loss of the service sector in the city of London due to not being able to access the European Single Market.
The report will shift focus to analyzing three competing viewpoints of the direction of the London market based on recordings from interviews of stakeholders in the London real estate market. One being an executive of one of the largest REITs in the UK, another being the Global Head of Real Estate at a top asset management firm, and another being a director at a large property consulting firm. The report includes these differing “sub-theses” in order to try to make sense of the vast market uncertainties post-Brexit as well as to contrast their viewpoints with where the market is currently and with the report’s investment recommendation.
The remainder of the report will consist of the methods used for analyzing market trends including how the data was modeled in order to make the investment recommendation. The report will analyze real estate and market metrics pre-Brexit, immediately after the vote, post-Brexit, and will conclude with future projections encapsulating the investment recommendation.
ContributorsHorn, Jonathan (Co-author) / Sidi, Adam (Co-author) / Bonadurer, Werner (Thesis director) / McDaniel, Cara (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
DescriptionIt explains the importance of being financially responsible and how planning can lead to financial freedom. As well, there is a workbook that can be used as a personal financial planning tool.
ContributorsO'Hare, Jackson (Author) / Licon, Wendell (Thesis director) / Jordan, Erin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor)
Created2022-12
Description
This paper studies how the COVID-19 global pandemic influenced a new generation of investors into the stock market. The paper will take a look at the state of the financial markets and its participants before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and after the pandemic. It is important to note that as of this paper, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from being over—these conclusions and recommendations are based on the current trends within the financial market. The research concludes that the younger participants that joined the market were more risk tolerant, traded in large quantities with little money, and found many of their trading strategies on social media platforms. Further research also suggests that market sentiments were highly correlated with price differences in stocks and other securities. Along with a categorization for the new investors in the market, this paper will take a look at how the new participants have affected more traditional experienced investors that were in the stock market well before the pandemic, and their ability to give and take investment advice from the new generation.
Key words: COVID-19 pandemic, risk average, pandemic investors, market sentiments
ContributorsRandeniya, Rushini (Author) / Bonadurer, Werner (Thesis director) / Jordan, Erin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor)
Created2022-05