The Search for Neutrino-Antineutrino Mixing Resulting from Lorentz Invariance Violation using neutrino interactions in MINOS

We searched for a sidereal modulation in the rate of neutrinos produced by the NuMI beam and observed by the MINOS far detector. The detection of such harmonic signals could be a signature of neutrino-antineutrino mixing due to Lorentz and CPT violation as described by the Standard Model Extension framework. We found no evidence for these sidereal signals and we placed limits on the coefficients in this theory describing the effect. This is the first report of limits on these neutrino-antineutrino mixing coefficients.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 3 table

Availability of credit to small and minority-owned businesses: Evidence from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances

This article analyzes factors influencing the decisions of prospective lenders to extend credit to small and minority-owned businesses. Using data from a government survey of small businesses, the analysis reveals that prospective lenders (primarily commercial banks)are four times more likely to deny credit to firms owned by African-Americans than to firms owned by Non-Hispanic whites, and are twice as likely to deny credit to firms owned by Asian-Americans than to firms owned by Non-Hispanic whites. These differences in denial rates remain both statistically and economically significant, even after controlling for differences in the type and size of the prospective loan; in the age, experience, education, and creditworthiness of the firm’s primary owner; in the age, size, capital structure, profitability, organizational form, creditworthiness, and industry of the firm; and in the types and length of pre-existing relationships between the firm and its prospective lender. Interestingly, these differences in denial rates are significant only when the prospective lender is a commercial bank.bank; credit; discrimination; race; small business; SSBF

The Search for Neutrino-Antineutrino Mixing from Lorentz Invariance Violation using Neutrino Interactions in MINOS

We searched for a sidereal modulation in the rate of neutrinos observed by the MINOS far detector. The detection of these signals could be a signature of neutrino-antineutrino mixing due to Lorentz and CPT violation as described by the Standard-Model Extension framework. We found no evidence for these sidereal signals and we placed limits on the coefficients in this theory describing the effect.Comment: Presented at the Sixth Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry, Bloomington, Indiana, June 17-21, 201

Banking consolidation and the availability of credit to small businesses

In this study, we use firm-level data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances to test the hypothesis that banking consolidation has reduced the availability of credit to small businesses. We find that banks in markets where mergers have occurred are more likely than other banks to deny credit to small business loan applicants. However, this relationship disappears after we control for characteristics of the small business firm and its principal owner, the economic environment of the market where the firm is located, and the financial condition of the prospective lender. Moreover, we find that one set of banks, those in the process of acquiring other banks, are less likely to deny credit to small businesses. These results suggest that consolidation in the banking industry may have enhanced rather than restricted the availability of credit to small businesses. However, the data reflect credit availability during 1991-94, and may not be representative of subsequent credit conditions. Nor does the analysis rule out possible changes in the terms of credit available to small businesses.acquisition; bank; bank merger; credit; merger; relationship; small business; SSBF; takeover

Legal origin, creditor protection and bank lending around the world

In this study, we test whether bankers make more loans when they enjoy superior creditor protection. We test these hypotheses using bank-level data from 35 developed countries and 113 developing countries over the period 2000-2006 and using a random-effects model that controls for bank heterogeneity. We find that bankers allocate a significantly larger portion of their assets to risky loans: (i) when they enjoy English common-law legal origin rather than French civil-law legal origin; (ii) when creditors’ rights are weaker; (iii) when their banks are larger; and (iv) when the largest shareholder has a lower percentage ownership. We also find that bankers in developing countries, but not in developed countries, allocate a significantly larger portion of their assets to risky loans when legal enforcement of creditor rights is more efficient. Overall, these results provide strong support for the theory of legal origin but provide only mixed support for the “power” theories of credit.banking, bank loans, bank risk-taking, creditor protection, creditors’ rights, emerging markets, investor protection, judicial enforcement, law and finance, legal origin, legal rights

Testing Lorentz and CPT Invariance with MINOS Near Detector Neutrinos

We present an analysis designed to search for Lorentz and CPT violations as predicted by the SME framework using the charged current neutrino events in the MINOS near detector. In particular we develop methods to identify periodic variations in the normalized number of charged current neutrino events as a function of sidereal phase. To test these methods, we simulated a set of 1,000 experiments without Lorentz and CPT violation signals using the standard MINOS Monte Carlo. We performed an FFT on each of the simulated experiments to find the distribution of powers in the sidereal phase diagram without a signal. We then injected a signal of increasing strength into the sidereal neutrino oscillation probability until we found a 5$\sigma$ deviation from the mean in the FFT power spectrum. By this method, we can establish upper limits for the Lorentz and CPT violating terms in the SME.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, CPT'07 Conference proceeding

What can we learn from privately held firms about executive compensation?

This study examines the determinants of CEO compensation using data from a nationally representative sample of privately held U.S. corporations. We find that: (i) the pay-size elasticity is much larger for privately held firms than for the publicly traded firms on which previous research has almost exclusively focused; (ii) executives at C-corporations are paid significantly more than executives at S-corporations; (iii) executive pay is inversely related to CEO ownership; (iv) executive pay is inversely related to leverage; and (v) executive pay is related to a number of CEO characteristics, including age, education and gender. Executive pay is inversely related to CEO age and positively related to educational attainment. Finally, female executives are paid significantly less than their male counterparts.Compensation; Organizational Form; Taxes; Ownership; Education; Gende

How accurate are commercial-real-estate appraisals? evidence from 25 years of NCREIF sales data

In this study, we provide new evidence on the performance measurement and reporting of commercial real estate returns. We do so by examining the accuracy of commercial-real-estate appraisals that occurred prior to the sale of properties from the NCREIF National Property Index (“NPI”) during 1984 – 2010, a period which spans two up-and-down cycles of the market. We find that, on average, appraisals are more than 12% above, or below, subsequent sales prices that take place two quarters following the appraisal. Even in a portfolio context, allowing for offsetting positive and negative differences, appraisals are off by an average of 4% – 5 % of value, even after adjusting for capital appreciation during those two quarters. We also provide new evidence regarding how, and by how much, appraised values lag behind sales prices. We find that appraisals appear to lag the true sales prices, falling significantly below in hot markets and remaining significantly above in cold markets. This new evidence provides guidance to investors, regulators and others about how to interpret real-estate indices like the NPI that are based upon appraised values, in both a rising and falling market. Finally, we find that this “appraisal error” is largely systematic; we can explain more than half of the variation in the signed percentage difference in sales price and appraised value. Hence, appraisal errors are not due solely to property-specific heterogeneity.appraisal; commercial real estate; commingled real estate fund; NCREIF; real estate