Glucksman Fellowship Program Student Research Reports

Abstract

Shourya Ghosh, under the supervision of Edward Altman, does a statistical comparison of credit ratings from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s to see whether there are any consistent biases between the two rating agencies. Kenneth McDermid, under the direction of Jeffrey Wurgler, investigates the performance of hedge funds and confirms that institutions with fewer assets and more concentrated portfolios outperform the others and that the out-performance is the result of selection ability. Joe Mellet, under the supervision of David Yermack, examines the market’s reaction to 320 special dividend announcements made in October, November, and December of 2012 in response to the looming tax increases and finds significant Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CARs) in the days surrounding the dividend announcement.