The impact of audit quality on the pricing of fair value estimates in the banking industry

In recent years, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) inspections have frequently reported audit deficiencies related to fair value measurements. Motivated by PCAOB’s concern, this paper examines investors’ perceptions on audit quality of fair value measurements. Using a sample of U.S. public banks from 2008 through 2013, I document a significant positive (negative) association between stock prices (bid-ask spreads) and audit quality of fair value measurements. This finding indicates that audit quality adds incremental value to investors as it mitigates reliability concerns relating to fair value estimates. Furthermore, using the fair value hierarchy mandated by Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) 157, I find the audit quality effect is stronger for Level 3 fair value estimates; suggesting high audit quality mitigates the reliability concerns relating to the substantial estimation uncertainties and management bias inherent in the more opaque Level 3 financial assets. Additional cross-sectional evidence shows that the effect of audit quality on the pricing of fair value estimates is greater for smaller banks and banks with a declining regulatory capital

Explicit bound for singularities on toric fibrations

It was conjectured by McKernan and Shokurov that for any Fano contraction $f:X \to Z$ of relative dimension $r$ with $X$ being $\epsilon$-lc, there is a positive $\delta$ depending only on $r,\epsilon$ such that $Z$ is $\delta$-lc and the multiplicity of the fiber of $f$ over a codimension one point of $Z$ is bounded above by $1/\delta$. Recently, this conjecture was confirmed by Birkar. In this paper, we give an explicit value for $\delta$ in terms of $\epsilon,r$ in the toric case, which belongs to $O(\epsilon^{2^r})$ as $\epsilon \to 0$. When $r=2$, the order $O(\epsilon^4)$ is optimal by an example given by Alexeev and Borisov.Comment: 15 pages, comments welcom

Upper bound of discrepancies of divisors computing minimal log discrepancies on surfaces

Fix a subset $I\subseteq \mathbb R_{>0}$ such that $\gamma=\inf\{ \sum_{i}n_ib_i-1>0 \mid n_i\in \mathbb Z_{\geq 0}, b_i\in I \}>0$. We give a explicit upper bound $\ell(\gamma)\in O(1/\gamma^2)$ as $\gamma\to 0$, such that for any smooth surface $A$ of arbitrary characteristic with a closed point 0 and an $\mathbb R$-ideal $\mathfrak{a}$ with exponents in $I$, there always exists a prime divisor $E$ over $A$ computing the minimal log discrepancy of $(A,\mathfrak{a})$ at 0 and with its log discrepancy $k_E+1\leq \ell(\gamma)$.Comment: 13 page

Feasibility Study of a Campus-Based Bikesharing Program at UNLV

Bikesharing systems have been deployed worldwide as a transportation demand management strategy to encourage active modes and reduce single-occupant vehicle travel. These systems have been deployed at universities, both as part of a city program or as a stand-alone system, to serve for trips to work, as well as trips on campus. The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTCSNV) has built a public bikesharing system in downtown Las Vegas, approximately five miles from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). This study analyzes the feasibility of a campus-based bikesharing program at UNLV. Through a review of the literature, survey of UNLV students and staff, and field observations and analysis of potential bikeshare station locations, the authors determined that a bikesharing program is feasible at UNLV