Claremont McKenna College

Past Financial Economics Institute Senior Theses

The following is a list of students who have completed the Financial Economics Sequence, their senior theses titles, and the name(s) of their faculty advisor(s):

2011 - 2012

Alexandra Abramovitz, Are Women Impact Players? The Effect of Female Executives on Firm Performance and Capital Structure, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Lauren Buchanan, The Success of Long-Short Equity Strategies versus Traditional Equity Strategies & Market Returns, Professor George Batta

Caleb Davis, U.S. Monetary Policy and Emerging Market Interest Rate Spreads: Explaining the Risk, Dean Gregory Hess

Austin Hallett, Finding Profitability of Technical Trading Rules in Emerging Market Exchange Traded Funds, Professor Darren Filson

Avery Holland, Are Olympic Sponsorships Worth It? The Case of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Professor Serkan Ozbeklik

Saumya Lohia, Performance of the Indian Banking Industry over the Last Ten Years, Professor Richard Burdekin

Rosabella Magat, Effects of Early Round Venture Capital Syndication on IPO Exits in Europe and the United States, Professor Janet Smith

Jeffrey McNerney, Searching for Value in Politcal Spending during the Announcement of Earnings Misstatements, Dean Brock Blomberg

Clinton Paulus, The Drivers of Monthly IPO Volume, Dean Gregory Hess

Kevin Potterton, Bid-Ask Spreads in a Heterogeneously Informed Market, Professor Eric Hughson

Sara Reed, The Effect of the Introduction of a Clearinghouse on Trading Costs: The New York Stock Exchange in the 1890s, Professor Eric Hughson

Jason Rehhaut, Past Financial Reporting Credibility: Does It Influence Market Perceptions of Fair Value Assets?, Professor George Batta

Peter Schock, The Effects of the Media on the Discrepancy between GAAP and Pro Forma Earnings?, Professor George Batta

Justin Spitzer, The Persistence of Pricing Differentials in Dual-Listed Companies in Hong Kong and China, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Dana Staley, Does the REIT Tale Wag the Dog? The Relationship between Tenant Ownership and Volatility of Retail REIT Stock Returns, Professor George Batta

Matthew Varghese, The Effects of Oil Supply Shocks on U.S. Stock Market Returns, Professor Marc Weidenmier

Andrew Yandell, The Potential Application of Weather Derivatives to Hedge Harvest Value Risk in the Champagne Region of France, Professors Joshua Rosett and Eric Hughson

2010 - 2011

Anthony Bouvier, The Effect of Age Upon CEO Compensation: A Cross-Industry Study, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

Lewis Corson, Private Equity Transaction Bankruptcy Risk Prediction, Professor Fan Yu

Andrew Cosentino, An Analysis of Futures Curves and Returns of Oil ETFs, Professor Manfred Keil

Kaitlyn Desai, The Secondary Market for Gift Cards and the Role of Corporate Bankruptcy Risk, Professor Eric Helland

Nathan Doctor, The Impact of Boards with Financial Expertise on University Endowment Returns, Professor Eric Helland

Justin Eskind, Factors Affecting the Forecasting Ability of Implied Correlation in Currency Options, Professor Fan Yu

Rajat Gupta, Diversification Premium on Indian ADRs During the Financial Crisis, Professor Eric Hughson

Grant Heffernan, Effect of Lockup Agreements on Buyout Backed Initial Public Offerings, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Emily Hirano, The Effects of Industry on Cross-Border and Domestic IPO Underpricing, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Reed Hogan, Quantifying the Variance Risk Premium in VIX Options, Professor Amir Barnea

Shaun Khubchandani, How Are Inflation Expectations Formed by Consumers, Economists and the Financial Market?, Professor Cameron Shelton

Benjamin Kraus, Determining the Benefits and Profitability of Implied Correlation in Foreign ETF Options, Professor Fan Yu

Noah Levin, The Impact of Weather Forecasts on Day-Ahead Power Prices, Professor Lisa  Meulbroek

Gayle Lim, How Did the Extension of the U.S. Dividend Tax Cuts in 2010 Affect Stock Prices?, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Alexander Reichert, The Value of the Sovereign Credit Default Market: Domestic Stock Market Interaction and Contagion Effects During Credit Crisis, Professor Fan Yu

Brett Spencer, Credit Market Imperfections, Financial Crisis and the Transmission of Monetary Policy, Professor Richard Burdekin

Jacob Spring, The Role of Fair Value Accounting in Bank Failures, Professor Ananda Ganguly

Jennifer Volk, Do Investors View Excess Capacity as a Determinant of Mergers and Acquisitions in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industry?, Professor Eric Hughson

Sean Wasserman, Analyzing the Effects of Credit Rating Changes, The Recent Financial Crisis and Other Variables on Firms' Debt Levels, Professor Fan Yu

Scott Yingling, Congressional Insider Trading: An Analysis of the Personal Common Stock Transactions of U.S. Senators, Professor Eric Hughson

Eric Zacharias, Activist Investor Impact on CEO Compensation of Investment Targets, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

2009 - 2010

Stephen Andron, The Effects of Warrants on Stock Returns: An Analysis of the Gold Ores Industry, Professor Joshua Rosett.

Max Bosworth, Determining Profitability of a Moving Average Technical Trading Rule, Professor Eric Hughson

Kyle Casella, Oil Shocks and the Term Structure of Interest Rates, Professor Marc Weidenmier

Nancy Chan, The Friday Effect on Earnings Announcements: Evidence from 2008, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

Harshvardhan Chowdhary, How Does Liquidity Affect Expected Returns on ADRs?, Professor Eric Hughson

Raghav Dhawan, Credit Ratings and Bond Yields in China's Corporate Bond Market, Professor Fan Yu

Benjamin Draa, Investor Sentiment, Fundamentals, and the Dot-Com Bubble, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Noah Franz, The Role of Asset Allocation in Smaller College and University Endowment Performance, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

Travis Hull, Profitabilty and Co-Financing in the Movie Industry: The Effect of Star Actors, Professors Henrik Cronqvist and Darren Filson

Andrew Jarmon, The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Executive Compensation, Professor George Batta

Thomas Keiffer, Market Liberalization and Comovement: The United States and Emerging Markets, Professor Fan Yu

Tyler Lay, Empirical Analysis of the Co-Movement of the Credit Default Swap Market and Stock Market, Professor Joshua Rosett

Michael Lim, Analyst Forecast Bias, Uncertainty, and Jensen's Inequality, Professors George Batta and Eric Hughson

Yu-Yu Lin, The Elimination of US GAAP Reconciliation Requirement for Foreign Private Issuers, Professor George Batta

Maria Lohner, Do Lawsuits Matter in the Pharmaceutical Industry?, Professor Eric Helland

Aleks Lyng, The Effect of Direct Bidding on Treasury Auctions, Professor Fan Yu

Robert Martin, Effects of the Government Sponsored Enterprises on Mortgage Lending Standards, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Jamie Matusiak, The Effects of Pension Costs and Expected Rates of Return for Plan Asset on CEO Cash Compensation in the New Millenium, Professor Joshua Rosett

Keren Michelson, Stock Market Reactions to the Announcement of CEO Turnovers Involving a Gender Switch, Professors Henrik Cronqvist and Manfred Keil

Nikolas Miller, Sector Leverage and Volatility, Professor Eric Hughson

Rachel Nishball, Debt Relief for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries: An Empirical Analysis of the HIPC Initiative, Professor Marc Weidenmier

John Perez, An Empirical Analysis of the Competitive and Contagion Effects upon Rival Firms Due to the Bankruptcy Filing of Competitors, Professors Lisa Meulbroek and Joshua Rosett

Natacha Petersen, Does Inflation Targeting Affect Stock Market Volatility in Emerging Markets?, Professor Eric Hughson

Scott Sanford, A Lesson from the North: A Comparison of US and Canadian Banks, Professor George Batta

Nicholas Sparks, An Analysis of the Primary Beta Adjustment Techniques: Method Reconciliations and Extension to Industries, Professor Eric Hughson

Michael Widmann, Who Signs the Checks? Does Ownership Structure Affect MLB Franchise Performance?, Professor Eric Hughson

Yang Yang, Stock Performance of Chinese State-Owned Commercial Banks and the Overall Chinese Stock Markets, Professor Richard Burdekin

Yuchen Zhang, Announcement Effect: Investigating the Credit Default Swap Market Reaction to Operational Risk Events, Professor Fan Yu

2008 - 2009

Scott Arnold, Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate Culture Clash, Professors Henrik Cronqvist and Eric Hughson

Alexander Bonnett, Changes in Corporate Debt Structures Following IPOs, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

Christopher Brigham, Risky Business: The Effect of Mood on Financial Decision Making and Risk Taking, Professors Henrik Cronqvist and Cathy Reed

Nicholas Burnett, Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404: Curse or Cure?, Professor Joshua Rosett

Russell Chidester, Venture Capital Influence on Underpricing From 1999 through 2007, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

Rishi Desai, The Performance of Reverse Leveraged Buyouts, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

John England, Market Reaction to Layoff Announcements and the Impact of Unionization, Dean Janet Smith

Doug Fagan, The Long-Run Abnormal Returns of Venture Capital-Backed and Nonventure Capital-Backed Initial Public Offerings, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

Kristie Finch, Anticipated Effects of Obama's Healthcare Plan as Measured by Pre-Election Stock Returns of Healthcare Industry Indexes, Professor Marc Weidenmier

Brian Fuerst, Peer Pressures in Corporate Philanthropy, Dean Greg Hess

Tejas Gala, The Effect of Liquidity on Information Flow between the Credit Default Swap and Stock Market, Dean Janet Smith

Kevin Hesla, The Role of Speculation in Crude Oil Markets, Professor Eric Hughson

Clare Hove, The Effect of Bond Rating Changes on Stock Prices in the First Half of 2008, Professor Henrik Cronqvist and Dean Greg Hess

Benjamin Hurh, Eluding Rational Expectations: Momentum and Contrarian Investing, Dean Greg Hess

Raheem Kajani, The Loss of Credit Quality of Monolines and the Subsequent Effect on Municipal Bond Yields, Professors Henrik Cronqvist and Fan Yu

Freya Lee, The Subprime Plummet of Housing Returns: What Explains It and When Will It End?, Dean Greg Hess

Peteris Liepins, The Emergency Order of 2008: Measures of Success, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

Peter McGah, Analyzing the Investment Characteristics of a Picasso Price Index, Dean Janet Smith

Joseph Mesa, Determinants of Oil Price Volatility: A Study on the Role of Speculation, Dean Greg Hess

Scott Metcalf, Presence of Volatility Spillover in Spot and Futures Commodities Markets, Dean Greg Hess

Kyle Miller, Organizational Conflict and Equity Returns in M&A: The Cost of Culture Clash to Shareholders, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

Bremner Morris, Investor Motivations: Analysis of the Share Price Performance of Publicly Traded English Soccer Teams, Professor Richard Burdekin

Christopher Moy, The Relationship between Leveraged Buyouts and Executive Compensation, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

Michael Shambon, How Do State Treasurers' Backgrounds Influence Yields on State Bonds?, Professor Fan Yu

Adam Sherman, Corporate Governance, Firm Value and Shareholder Returns: A Changing Relationship, Professor Henrik Cronqvist

David Szeto, Should Countries "Go For the Gold"? Lessons from The Great Depression, Professor Richard Burdekin

Brittney Watson, Clean or Greenwash: Does Environmental Performance and Green Advertising Impact Firm Financial Performance?, Professor Marc Massoud

Eric Young (HMC), Short Selling, Put Options, and International Markets: An Investigation of SEC Emergency Order 34-58592, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Timothy Zenderman, An Event Study of Acquisition Consideration and Impairment, Professors George Batta and Marc Massoud

2007 - 2008

Louis F. Albanese II, Indulging in Bad Times: Investigating Sin Stock Returns in Recessions, Professor Janet Smith

Asaf Bernstein (HMC), Can a Lender-of-Last-Resort Stabilize Financial Markets? Lessons from the Founding of the Fed, Professors Marc Weidenmier and Eric Hughson

Roshunda Calhoun, Goodwill Hunting: Goodwill Recognition and Earnings Management since SFAs No. 142, Professors Joshua Rosett and Lisa Meulbroek, and Dr. Jerome Garris

Kristen Crouse, An Exploration of Environmental Accounting and the Valuation of Companies That Environmentally Report, Professor Joshua Rosett

Jonathan Delich, Forecasting Market Returns Based on Lagged Volatility: Do VIX and VXN Have Predictive Ability in a Lagged Setting?, Professor Eric Hughson

Fan Du, An Empirical Study of the Impact of Intangible Assets on the Sustainability of Firm-Specific Profits, Professor Joshua Rosett

Yasmin Entekhabi, Unrecognized Land Value Appreciation: A Look at the Spread between Book and Market Valuation, Professor Joshua Rosett

Alexander McGavock Hill, The Impact of Financial Development on Economic Growth: A Case Study Including Argentina, China, Greece, and India, Professor Richard Burdekin

Daniel Jager, An Empirical Examination of the Impact of Material Weakness Disclosure under Section 404 on the Value Relevance of Reported Earnings, Professor Joshua Rosett

Philip J. Kaestle, A Quantitative Analysis of Climate Change: Cointegration Testing to Determine Causation and Projecting Future Costs of Achieving a Sustainable Climate, Professors Manfred Keil and Jim Symons

Robert Kurisu, The Penny Pilot Program: Effects of Pricing Equity Options in Penny Increments, Professor Eric Hughson

Tinsley Lowe, Chronically Underperforming Firms and Institutional Monitoring: Does Increased Monitoring Influence Performance?, Professor Janet Smith

Ryan Lulow, The Effect of World Bank Investment, Foreign Direct Investment, and Domestic Investment on Economic Growth, Professor Gregory Hess

Eric Michaels, Bringing Down the Housing Market: Should the Federal Reserve Have Altered Monetary Policy in Response to the U.S. Real Estate Bubble?, Professor Marc Massoud

David Noble, Labor Relations and the Troubling State of Major League Baseball, Professor Gregory Hess

Christopher W. Penka, Convertible Debt's Function in Linking the Current and Future Financing Needs of Firms, Professor Joshua Rosett

Jessica L. Perri, Investing in the Super Bowl - Stock Returns and Commercials, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Catherine Powers, Managerial Turnover and Organizational Efficiency: The Pursuit of Alpha in the Context of Major League Baseball, Professor Janet Smith

Kartheek C. Raju, Impact of Microfinance: A Study of its Distribution and its Effects on Output and School Enrollment in Andhra Pradesh, Professor Jennifer Ward-Batts

Luke Redfern, Stock Market Sentiment in China: The Impact on Time Deposits and Share Prices, Professor Richard Burdekin

Meg Sakurai, The Impact of the New Company Law on Japanese Stock Valuation, Professor Joshua Rosett

Valay Shah, International Diversification: An Out-of-Sample Study of Portfolio Optimization Using Analysts' Earnings Forecasts, Professor Eric Hughson

Cindy Thio, CEO Finance Background: Effect on Firm Dividend Policy, Professor Joshua Rosett

Aseem Vyas, The Effect of University Endowment Spending on Institutional Quality, Professor Janet Smith

Felicia Wu, Insider Trading on Credit Default Swaps, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Blake Zacharias, Insider Anticipation of the 2007 U.S. Subprime Crisis, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

2006 - 2007

Jacquelyn Bean, Determinants of Retail Pricing for U.S. Electric Utilities, Professor Joshua Rosett

Takaya Brunner, The Effect of Compensation Consultants and Why Companies Hire Them, Professor Janet Smith

Matthew Colville, Trends in Pharmaceutical Pro Forma Reporting, Professor Joshua Rosett

John Robert Field, Accounting Implications of Macroeconomic Influences on Trade Receivables, Professor Joshua Rosett

Zachry Fragapane, Evidence of Collusion and Productive Efficiency in Airline Stock Reactions to Merger and Acquisition Announcements, Professor Janet Smith

Ryan Hibbard, Measuring Market Efficiency in Selected Securities Fraud Cases: To Presume or not to Presume Investor Reliance at the Class Certification Stage, Professor Janet Smith

Daniel Jacobson, Exploring Private Entity Valuation Methodologies: A Case Study in Audio Books, Professor Janet Smith

Jerry Lin, Investor Response to Corporate Sponsorships in the Olympics and the World Cup, Professor Janet Smith

Ilona Moizesch, Earnings Management: A Look into CEO Incentive Based Compensation, Professor Joshua Rosett

Skye Morland, Evidence of Momentum Displayed by Real Estate Investment Trusts, Professor Janet Smith

Daniel Nishball, Virtual Worlds as an Economics Experimentation Tool, Professor Janet Smith

Will St. Clair, Intra-Industry Information Transfer Effects in the Oil Industry Following Downward Revisions in Proved Reserves, Professor Janet Smith

Mohamed Traore, Corruption and Capital Market Size, Professor Janet Smith

Chris Urban, Ethanomics: Economic Analysis of the United States Ethanol Industry, Professor Janet Smith

Paul Van Deventer, Assessing the Merits of Securities Class Action Lawsuits through the Insider Trading Records of Named Defendants, Professor Eric Helland

Zizheng Wang, Chronic Underperformance/Overperformance and Organizational Risk Taking, Professor Janet Smith

2005 - 2006

Paul Books, Private Investment of Public Equity (PIPE): An Analysis of Short and Long Term Returns and the Role Illiquidity Plays in a PIPE Discount, Professor Janet Smith

Max Gokhman, The Corporate Prince: Using the Machiavellian Instrument to Predict Corporate Behavior, Professors William Brown and Yaron Raviv

Justin Hance, The Effect of Size and Asset Allocation on College and University Endowment Performance, Professor William Brown

Jason Kamienski, Absolute Priority in Bankruptcy and the Role of Managerial Compensation, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Michael D. Karp, A Quantitative Approach to Predicting Corporate Fraud: The Human Influence on Financial Reporting, Professor William Brown

Ryu Kawano, Consolidation in the Japanese Banking Sector: Analyzing the Merger Between Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group and United Financial Japan Holdings, Professor Janet Smith

George Malikov (HMC), The Market Response to Employee Stock Option Repricings and Exchanges, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Lauren Melin, Evidence of the Debt-Monitoring Hypothesis and Agency Cost in the Merger and Acquisition Market, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Jeffrey Model, Examining Equity-Linked Executive Compensation in the Apparel and Drug Industries, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Kyle Seminara, An Analysis of the Contribution of Discount Volatility to Movements in the Market Price of Closed-End Municipal Funds, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

Matthew R. Westcot, Does Capital Under Management Affect the Concentration of Venture Capital Portfolios?, Professors William Brown and Janet Smith

2004 - 2005

Peter Hellwig, An Empirical Analysis of Section 404: Implications for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Professors William Brown and Joshua Rosett

Eva Nazarewicz, CEO Finance Background: Effects on Firm Free Cash Flow and Capital Structure, Professor Joshua Rosett

Kan Ho Hirotaka Son, The Effect of Option Exchange Program on Firm Value: Examining the Significance of Incentive Alignment, Professor Lisa Meulbroek

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