Now showing items 21-40 of 50

    • Estimating Parameters of the 1918-19 Influenza Epidemic on U.S. Military Bases

      Sohn, Kyongsei; Boulier, Bryan L.; George Washington University; The College at Brockport (2012-10-01)
      Occasional shifts in the influenza virus generates a new variant, posing potential threat of a deadly epidemic. This type of shift occurred with the 1918-19 flu with devastating consequences in the U.S. and worldwide. Using newly developed data from 18 U.S. military establishments during the 1918-19 flu epidemic, we estimate parameters of the Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Asymptomatic-Removed epidemic model. Our estimates show considerable variation in the value of the infectivity parameter across bases. This variation is uncorrelated with base size or beginning date of the epidemic. Results indicate that the epidemic on U.S. military bases was more infectious than those of in England and Wales.
    • Effectiveness of Event Risk Covenants in High Yield Bonds: Evidence from Long-Run Stock Performance

      Tewari, Manish; Ramanlal, Pradipkumar; The College at Brockport; University of Central Florida (2012-01-01)
      We examine the post-issue long-run performance of the common stock of the firms issuing nonconvertible high yield bonds with event risk covenants (ERCs) over the period five years after the issue date. Using Fama French (1993) four factor regression model to analyze a sample of 217 issues issued between 1986 and 2004, we find statistically and economically significant monthly average abnormal returns between 0.36% and 0.55%, which compounds to 24% to 39% over the five year period. The evidence suggests strong long-run overperformance after the issuance. This result is in contrast to the evidence of underperformance after the straight debt issues (Speiss and Affleck-Graves, 1999). Our results support the evidence that the ERCs in bonds issued by the firms closer to financial distress or with low credit rating, help significantly reduce the agency problem between the common stockholders and the bondholders resulting in direct cost benefit to the firm in terms of reduced yields. This benefit seems to far outweigh the costs to the stockholders in terms of agency cost of potential management entrenchment and/or potential loss of takeover premium. The net result is the higher returns for the shareholders. The full impact of this benefit is only realized in the long-run.
    • The Pricing of Accruals Quality in Credit Default Swap Spreads

      Alam, Pervaiz; Pu, Xiaoling; Hettler, Barry; Kent State University; The College at Brockport (2018-05-03)
      We examine the association between accounting information risk, measured with accruals quality (AQ), and credit spreads, primarily measured with credit default swap (CDS) spreads. Theoretically, AQ measures the precision with which accruals map into cash flows. Better AQ implies a more-precise estimate of future cash flows, and, we predict, a reduction in credit spreads due to resulting lower uncertainty regarding the ability to meet debt interest and principal payments. In support of this hypothesis, we find a negative relationship between AQ and CDS spreads whereby better AQ is associated with lower CDS spreads. Additionally, we investigate the components of total AQ and find that innate AQ is more strongly associated with CDS spreads than is discretionary AQ. We further show that AQ moderates the market’s pricing of earnings: the relationship between earnings and CDS spreads weakens as AQ worsens. Together, our results indicate that accounting information risk is priced in credit spreads and that the CDS market responds not only to the level of earnings, but the quality thereof as well.
    • Insider Ownership and Financial Analysts' Information Environment: Evidence from Dual-Class Firms

      Forst, Arno; Hettler, Barry; Barniv, Ran Ron; Kent State University; The College at Brockport; The University of Texas (2016-10-18)
      We examine the association of insider ownership with financial analysts' forecast accuracy and dispersion in a sample of U.S. dual class firms. Insider ownership exerts two effects: a positive incentive and a negative entrenchment effect. The lack of significant findings in prior research regarding the association between insider ownership and forecast accuracy may be attributable to the offsetting forces of these two effects. Using a comprehensive hand-collected sample of U.S. firms that maintain more than one class of common stock, we are able to disentangle incentive and entrenchment effects which are confounded in single-class firms. We find that disproportionate insider control is negatively associated with forecast accuracy and positively associated with forecast dispersion. Moreover, insider cash flow rights (insider voting rights) are positively (negatively) associated with forecast accuracy and negatively (positively) associated with forecast dispersion, consistent with incentive-alignment and entrenchment effects of ownership affecting financial analysts’ forecasting environment in opposite directions.
    • The Sensitivity of the CDS Market to Financial Analysts’ Forecast Revisions

      Alam, Pervaiz; Pu, Xiaoling; Hettler, Barry; Kent State University; The College at Brockport (2016-10-01)
      We examine the impact of analysts’ earnings per share (EPS) and cash flow per share (CPS) forecast revisions on the market for credit default swaps. Earnings and cash flows directly affect the level of firm assets and equity, and prior theoretical and empirical work demonstrates they are important factors in the determination of credit spreads. Accordingly, if analysts’ forecasts and forecast revisions represent new and unexpected information, credit default swap (CDS) spreads are likely to respond. We find that while the issuance of both EPS and CPS forecast revisions relate inversely with changes in CDS spreads, cash flow forecast revisions have a larger effect, on average. We also find that the relationship between CPS forecast revisions and CDS spreads tends to be stronger in cases of financial distress. Furthermore, we do not observe an immediate significant reaction in the CDS market to analysts’ recommendation changes. Our study provides evidence that cash flow forecasts dominate earnings forecasts in some situations and that participants in the CDS market discriminate between forms of analyst output.
    • Disproportionate Insider Control and Firm Performance

      Hettler, Barry; Forst, Arno; The College at Brockport; The University of Texas (2017-06-22)
      The effect of disproportionate insider control on firm performance is ambiguous. Disproportionate control may enhance insiders’ ability to expropriate perquisites; on the other hand, it may provide stability of management and reduce short?term market pressures. Using a hand?collected sample of U.S. dual?class firms, we find that disproportionate control is positively associated with accounting?based performance, but negatively associated with Tobin's Q. These results are consistent with the incentives of entrenched insiders who are interested in profitability but less beholden to capital markets.
    • An Analysis Of The Determinants Of MIS Faculty Salary Offers

      Tribunella, Thomas; Neely, M. Pamela; Hull, Clyde Elrikur; Rochester Institute of Technology; State University of New York at Oswego; The College at Brockport (2007-01-01)
      Much research has been published related to compensation in academic fields such as finance, accounting and economics; however, little attention has been paid to Management Information Systems (MIS). Conspicuously absent from the literature are in-depth studies of faculty compensation and its relationship to research productivity for MIS faculty. This study examines compensation, rank, and publication data collected from the Association for Information Systems (AIS) 2003-2004, 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 MIS Salary Surveys. MIS faculty who were newly employed or changed positions filled out the online survey at the AIS Web site on a self-selected basis. The relationships between compensation and its possible determinants such as research productivity and institutional teaching load are reported as well as analyzed. We find that compensation is significantly correlated with professors’ profiles as well as with the school profile at which the professor received a job offer.
    • Academic And Practitioner Interests Regarding Emerging Technologies In Accounting

      Tribunella, Thomas J.; Neely, M. Pamela; Tribunella, Heidi R.; Rochester Institute of Technology; The College at Brockport; University of Rochester (2005-05-01)
      In this paper we investigate the differences between practitioner and academic interests in emerging technologies. We compare and contrast the results of an accounting faculty survey to the AICPA’s (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) Top Technology list. It appears that academics and practitioners have significantly different interests concerning emerging technologies. Furthermore, technology interests for both groups change over time. We then discuss the problems that arise from the differing points of view and suggest some possible solutions.
    • Process Variation: Demonstrating Responsibility

      Romal, Jane B.; Braunscheidel, Michael J.; Canisius College; The College at Brockport (2009-10-01)
      W. Edwards Deming preached that understanding variation is of paramount importance. He created the Red Bead Experiment (DRBE) to illustrate that variation is present in all processes and that utimately, management, not the willing worker, is responsible for the variability that is inherent in a process. We modify DRBE to demonstrate these lessons to undergraduate management and accounting students. Our results indicate that DRBE is a successful way for these students to I cam how variation applies to their respective studies.
    • What influences salary: A study of MIS faculty job offers

      Neely, M. Pamela; Tribunella, Thomas; Tang, Zhi; Hull, Clyde Elrikur; Rochester Institute of Technology; State University of New York at Oswego; The College at Brockport (2008-01-01)
      What matters when you’re negotiating a job offer? We address this and other questions using data from the Association for Information Systems (AIS) Salary Surveys on compensation, rank, publication data, and similar data associated with MIS Faculty job offers. Our study has three primary findings. First, school and individual factors influence the position and salary offered, but individual factors have a stronger impact. Second, we find the position (i.e., associate/assistant professor and teaching load) offered by schools partially mediates the relationship between school and individual factors and the starting salary. Third, the direct impact of individual factors is also influenced by some school factors. Specifically, top tier publication is the most important individual factor in determining the salary level at PhD granting institutions.
    • An Exploratory Study Investigating Leader and Follower Characteristics at U.S. Healthcare Organizations

      Baker, Susan D.; Mathis, Christopher J.; Stites-Doe, Susan; Morgan State University; The College at Brockport (2011-10-01)
      Leadership has been studied by a myriad of scholars in the 20th and 21st centuries. One recent stream of research focuses on the followers of leaders. Today, followership is recognized as a construct that has value, and there is a broad call for additional research in this area (Gardner et al., 2005; Howell and Shamir, 2005.) In this study, the authors propose hypotheses that focus on followers and on their adoption of characteristics that are leader-like. The central thesis in this study is that followers have the ability to share roles with leaders. To test that thesis, a model is presented of specific leader and follower behaviors that (a) are thought to be related and overlapping, and (b) are relevant to role-sharing. Borrowing from prior work in which role sharing has been discussed, this study presents hypotheses and findings from analysis of field survey data collected from employees in healthcare organizations.
    • Is the Put Option in U.S. Structured Bonds Good for Both Bondholders and Stockholders?

      Tewari, Manish; Ramanlal, Pradipkumar; The College at Brockport; University of Central Florida (2010-01-01)
      The recent financial crisis has brought into spotlight various financially engineered products, their design parameters, and the impact of these design parameters on the bondholders and the common stockholders. We analyze the common stock performance of 134 firms issuing the callable-puttable bonds, a structured derivative security, issued between 1977 and 2005. We focus our study on the common stock performance of the issuing firms around the issue date and the put date. We use the Fama French (1993) four factor regression model to estimate the common stock performance of the issuing firms two years before and after the issue and the put date. We find that these firms underperform the market throughout. The firms perform worse after the issue date but improve their performance as we get closer to the put date. We find strong evidence that the presence of the put option in these securities provides protection to the bondholders as well as improved returns to the common stockholders. The deferred put option can mitigate the agency problem between the stockholders and the bondholders.
    • Incentives for monitors; director stock-based compensation and firm performance

      Cordeiro, James J.; Veliyath, Rajaram; Neubaum, Donald O.; Kennesaw State University; The College at Brockport; University of Central Florida (2005-04-01)
      Since the mid-1990s, US corporations have increasingly emphasized stock-based compensation for outside directors in order to align their interests with stockholders and thus boost firm performance. We demonstrate that stock options and stock grants (each as a ratio relative to total compensation) for directors were positively related to future firm performance (measured as stock returns, and, separately, as Jensen's Alpha) for a panel of 450 Standard and Poor 500 films over 1995-97. Stock option ratios appeared to have a stronger impact on film performance than stock grants did.
    • An Empirical Assessment Of The Determinants Of Bank Branch Manager Compensation

      Stites-Doe, Susan; Cordeiro, James J.; The College at Brockport (1999-10-01)
      A model of branch-management compensation based on human capital and performance measures is tested using data on managers from eighty-two branches of a large, Eastern United States bank. Human capital factors such as managerial rank, gender, years of schooling, experience in the industry, and age are found to explain branch manager pay levels, after controlling for competition, and branch size.
    • Delaying Social Security Payments: A Bootstrap

      Spitzer, John J.; The College at Brockport (2006-10-01)
      This paper reconciles previous research outcomes and explains why prior studies offer conflicting recommendations regarding the decision to delay Social Security payments. Using a bootstrap, this paper determines the age at which a retiree is better off deferring Social Security payments when rates of return are not constant. The expected rate of return affects the breakeven age and the rate of return is a function of asset allocation. When life expectancy and realistic investment returns are incorporated into the analysis, there are few circumstances that warrant postponing Social Security payments for early retirees.
    • Do EVA ™ Adopters Outperform their Industry Peers? Evidence from Security Analyst Earnings Forecasts

      Cordeiro, James J.; Kent, D. Donald; The College at Brockport (2001-06-01)
      The purpose of the present study is to re-examine the link between EVA ™ adoption and firm performance, using security analyst earnings forecasts. These forecasts, we argue, function as a proxy for firm performance that usefully supplements other accounting and stock market measures. We begin by reviewing some of the literature on EVA™, noting claims for strengths and weaknesses of that performance measure and management system. We then make the case for why security analyst earnings forecasts are a useful performance measure for testing the performance effects of EVA TM adoption. We test our hypothesis using Stern Stewart's sample of firms in 1997.
    • Retirement Withdrawals: an Analysis of the Benefits of Periodic “Midcourse” Adjustments

      Spitzer, John J.; The College at Brockport (2008-04-01)
      Much research has addressed the question of how much money can safely be withdrawn from a retirement portfolio without prematurely running out of money (shortfall risk). Instead of constant (inflation adjusted) annual withdrawals, this study uses withdrawal amounts (and optionally, asset allocations) that are modified every five years over a 30-year withdrawal horizon. A bootstrap is used initially to obtain the conditional probability rules. Further simulations demonstrate that periodic (every five years) adjustments can decrease the risk of running out of money as well as increase the amount withdrawn, as compared to a “constant withdrawal amount” strategy
    • Shortfall Risk of Target-date Funds During Retirement

      Spitzer, John J.; Singh, Sandeep; The College at Brockport (2008-06-01)
      Target-date mutual funds are likely to increase in popularity because they are now one of the three approved default options for many retirement plans. In the retirement years, target-date funds become increasingly conservative with higher bond concentrations. Using a bootstrap simulation and rolling period analysis, three target-date fund classifications are shown to have higher probabilities of running out of money and lower balance remaining when compared to fixed allocation portfolios. A fixed 50/50 stock/bond portfolio unambiguously out-performs the target-date funds, regardless of methodology employed. In light of this evidence, these funds should revisit their asset allocation strategy.
    • The Impact of Women Managers on Firm Performance: Evidence from Large U.S. Firms

      Cordeiro, James J.; Stites-Doe, Susan; The College at Brockport (1997-01-01)
      Drawing on arguments from the management and human resource economics literatures, we hypothesise that the percentage of women managers employed in firms will be positively related to the performance of firms. A correlational research design is employed, and 1992 employment and performance data for 183 U.S. firms is utilised in data analysis. The hypothesis is strongly supported.
    • The Office Makes a Difference: An Exercise on the Politics of Office Space

      Stites-Doe, Susan; Waite, Melissa L.; Pillai, Rajnandini; The College at Brockport (1998-01-01)
      In this article we report the benefits of a new case study that explores gender bias, organizational culture, and organizational politics. The case is based on true events, and centers on the assignment of office space to a newly-promoted female vice president at a savings and loan bank. Office space is argued by many to be symbolic of power in organizations. The experiences of the main character in the case point to power imbalances that result from gender-based cultural values and the character's inadequate attention to political behavior.