The role of critical evaluation in finance: evidence from an MSc in finance programme

This article explores how prepared MSc in Finance students at a British University were for a research based dissertation; how much they knew about independent research prior to starting the dissertation; and how the University assisted them during this research work. Three changes were carried out within the programme with the main aim of immersing students in research practices. Students were provided with the opportunity to discuss and evaluate critically the methodologies and findings of real research studies in Finance. Thus, the study provides practical suggestions on how to support the students' experience of dissertation work. Furthermore, this article contributes to the literature on what constitutes research in Finance and on how students can learn about standards of academic validation, by offering a subject-specific perspective on information literacy

Convexity, magnification, and translation: the effect of managerial option-based compensation on corporate cash holdings

Using the distinctions among the convexity, magnification, and translation effects, we identify the pertinent parameters and examine empirically the relation between cash holdings and option-based managerial compensation. We show that changes in delta reduce the effects of magnification and convexity on managerial risk aversion. We also provide evidence that there is a negative relation between the option-based incentives delta and vega and cash holdings. These results are robust when incentives are extended to include all executive board members and when the sample is broken down according to different risk characteristics

The effect of CEO risk appetite on firm volatility: an empirical analysis of financial firms

This paper examines the effect of CEO risk appetite on the return volatility of a sample of large, listed financial firms over the period 2000-2008. After controlling for firm specific characteristics, the results give strong evidence that the CEO risk appetite has an important effect on firm volatility. The biographical measures for CEO risk appetite are significant explanatory variables of all measures of firm volatility employed in this study. The effect of CEO age is significant and positive for all four volatility measures, while CEO education and current job tenure are negative and significant for all four measures. Executive experience with other firm boards has a negative and significant effect on total and idiosyncratic volatility. Interestingly, CEO wealth is complementary to the other biographical variables with a positive effect on all but the default volatility measure. Our results carry implications for shareholders, financial regulators, governments and managers

Does it pay to be ethical? Evidence from the FTSE4Good

The empirical mean-variance evidence comparing the performance of socially responsible investments (SRI) and conventional investments suggests that there is no significant difference between the two. This paper re-examines the problem in the context of Marginal Conditional Stochastic Dominance (MCSD), which can accommodate any return distribution or concave utility function. Our results provide strong evidence that there is a financial price to be paid for socially responsible investing. Indices composed of socially responsible firms are MCSD dominated by trademarked indices composed of conventional firms as well as by indices carefully matched by size and industry with the firms in the SRI indices. Zero cost portfolios created by shorting the SRI index and using the proceeds to invest in the conventional index generate higher average returns, lower variance and higher skewness than either of the two indices standing alone. They also MCSD dominate the SRI and conventional indices standing alone

Importance of the fund management company in the performance of socially responsible mutual funds

We compare the performance of a sample of UK based SRI funds with similar conventional funds using a matched pair analysis based on size, age, investment universe and fund management company (FMC). We find that both the SRI and conventional funds outperform the market index about 50% of the time, even after fees. Sub sample tests show that the SRI funds in our sample perform better in the pre and post financial crisis periods while underperforming during the financial crisis period. Importantly, we find that the FMC plays a major role in the outperformance of both SRI and conventional funds

Political connections and corporate financial decision making

This paper investigates whether and how political connections influence managerial financial decisions. Our study reveals that those firms that have a politician on its board of directors are highly leveraged, use more long-term debt, hold large excess cash and are associated with low quality financial reporting compared to their non-connected counterparts. These effects escalate with the strength of the connected politician and whether he or his party is in power. The winning party effect is observed to be stronger than victory by the politician himself. Overall, our paper provides strong evidence that political connection is a two-edged sword. It is indeed a valuable resource for connected firms, but it comes at a cost of higher agency problems

Firms cash management, adjustment cost and its impact on firms’ speed of adjustment-A cross country analysis

We investigate the firms’ specific attributes that determine the difference in speed of adjustment (SOA) towards the cash holdings target in the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We examine whether Scandinavian firms maintain an optimal level of cash holdings and determine if the active cash holdings management is associated with the firms’ higher SOA and lower adjustment costs. Our findings substantiate that a higher level of off-target cost induces professional managers to rebalance their cash level towards the optimal balance of cash holdings. Our results reveal that Scandinavian firms accelerate SOA towards cash targets primarily for the precautionary motive. Moreover, our results show that SOA is heterogeneous across Scandinavian firms based on adjustment cost and deviate cash holdings towards the target mainly with the support of internal financing. Furthermore, our empirical findings show that the SOA of Norwegian firms is significantly higher than the Danish and Swedish firms

What happens to nascent entrepreneurs? An econometric analysis of the PSED.

This article follows the progress of a large and nationally representative sample of American nascent entrepreneurs – identified in the initial interview of the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) – over the next 12 months of the panel. We develop a novel theoretical framework based on maximisation of expected utility and the value of waiting, and estimate it to reveal which personal and economic characteristics are associated with venture start-up – and which are associated with remaining a nascent entrepreneur, or giving up entirely. The value of waiting turns out to play a key role in helping us understand what happens to nascent entrepreneurs. We discuss the implications of our results for entrepreneurs, lenders, business start-up support agencies and policy-makers

The prudential effect of strategic institutional ownership on stock performance

This paper examines the effect of prudentially obligated strategic institutional ownership on the performance of firm stock returns. Using the concept of marginal conditional stochastic dominance (MCSD), performance is measured to include the whole distribution of stock returns instead of limiting itself to the first two moments of mean and variance. It provides strong evidence that prudentially obligated strategic institutional ownership is consistent with the fiduciary responsibility of prudential investment behaviour and that it is performance enhancing as well. Our results also provide evidence that although the effects of “pressure sensitive” and “pressure resistant” institutions affect the individual measures of risk aversion (moments of the distributions) differently, when the total distribution is considered, both types of institutional ownership reflect prudence and are performance enhancing. These results are robust with respect to a range of conventional control variables and estimation techniques