Thesis topics by CMC students who have completed the CMC Financial Economics Sequence as well as those in the dual degree BA/MA program.
2023-2024 Senior Theses
Fall 2023
Defne Arpacioglu, BA/MA, Market Mayhem: Unraveling the Intricacies of the M&A Cycle Amid Economic Turmoil, Prof. Murat Binay
Oluwatimilehin (Timi) Balogun, FES, Inflationary Pressures: Analyzing the Varied Effects of Inflation on Acquisitive Crime across 17 U.S. Cities, Prof. Julio Garin
Brandon Bova, FES, The Impact of How the Covid-19 Pandemic Changed the Characteristics of Loans in the United States Between Borrower Industries That Are Heavily Supported by Government Stimulus, compared to those Not Supported to the Same Extent, Prof. Nishant Dass
Jackson Gonzales, FES, Mexican and Chinese American Remittance Spending: Social and Cultural Linkages vs. Economic Behaviors, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
Spencer Kent, FES, Bio-Bust: Investigating Biotech Stock Factors Contributing to Abnormal Returns in the Wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s Failure, Prof. Eric Hughson
Ian Larson, BA/MA, AI-nvesting: An Empirical Analysis with Sector Categorization and Prompt Complexity Considerations Assessing the Predictive Power of ChatGPT in Stock Market Forecasting, Prof. Eric Hughson
Rachana Muvvala, FES, Unions’ Impact on Firms’ Financial Decision Making: A Look at Right-to-Work Laws and their Impact on Firms’ Leverage Decisions, Prof. Serkan Ozbeklik
Carolina Nobili, BA/MA, Predicting Financial Failure for Retail and Hospitality Companies in the United States, Prof. Nishant Dass
Julissa Ponce, BA/MA, Which to Prioritize: Philanthropy, Environmental, or Diversity activities? Exploring the Financial Impacts of Different Types of Corporate Social Responsibility, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
Gavin Rosser, FES, Long-Term Performance of PE-Backed IPOs, Prof. Fan Yu
Maria Izabella Sakoda, BA/MA, Breaking the Biotech Code: A Closer Look at Therapeutic Focus, Treatment Type, and Clinical Development Stage in Post-IPO Performance of Biotech Companies, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
Joseph Tanuri, FES, Post-Earnings-Announcement Drift in Indonesia, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
William Turner, FES, CEO Characteristics That Lead to Extreme Outperformance: A Statistical Analysis of William Thorndike’s “The Outsiders”, Prof. Nishant Dass
Zara Vakath, FES, Activism Aftershocks: Looking Beyond the Short-Term Stock Surges Caused by Activist Hedge Fund Campaign Announcements, Prof. Eric Hughson
2022-2023 Senior Theses
Fall 2022
Joshua Angle, BA/MA, To ESG or Not to ESG? The Looming Decision for American State Pension Funds, Prof. Eric Hughson
Michal Bachar , BA/MA, Equity financing choices as a market signal? Differences in CVC and IVC-backed companies’ Tobin’s Q post-IPO, Prof. Eric Hughson
Andrew Cohen, FES, Executive Option Mix and Firm Litigation Risk, Prof. Andrew Finley
Benjamin Cooney, FES, A County-level Analysis of California Cap-and-Trade Auctions and the Corresponding Investments in Emissions Reduction Projects, Prof. Nishant Dass
Lok Yiu “Natalie” Leung, BA/MA, The Effect of Securities Class Action Lawsuits on Investor Sentiment, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
John “Will” Wallace, FES, The Anti-ESG Equity Premium, Prof. Eric Hughson
Spring 2023
Joshua Allen, FES, Is There a “Sin Premium” Abroad? An Investigation into Chinese Sin Stocks, Prof. Eric Hughson
Michael Colangelo, BAMA, Does Firm Payout Behavior Serve as a Signal for Future Profitability? Prof. Benjamin Gillen
Connor Cryan, FES, The Effect of Changes in US Money Supply on S&P 500 Returns During the Global Financial Crisis and COVID-19 Recession, Prof. Julio Garin
Joseph Ganley , FES, Are Stable Coins Stable? Stable Coins’ Exposure to Cryptocurrency and Financial Market Volatility, Profs. Dass/Fernholz
Christopher Garnett, FES, An Event Study of Corporate Venture Capital Investments and Streaming Service Launch Events by Media & entertainment Firms (1999-2020), Prof. Darren Filson
Henry Harvego, FES, Institutional Capital Effect’s on Single-Family Housing Markets, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
Jack Holden, FES, The Proximity Penalty by Sector: The Case of the War in Ukraine, Prof. Julio Garin
Elizabeth Iwicki, BA/MA, Doing Well While Doing Good? The Cost of Responsible Investing, Prof. Eric Hughson
Ali Jaffri, FES, Exploring Triangular Arbitrage Opportunities in the Bitcoin Markets: A Comprehensive Study of Market Dynamics and CME Options, Prof. Nishant Dass
Adam Koszut, BA/MA, Tail Risk Hedging: Do Hedged Portfolios Outperform Unhedged Portfolios Over the Long Run? Prof. Eric Hughson
Samantha Manywa, FES, Evaluating the Performance of U.S. Card Networks in the New Fintech Era: An Event Study Analysis, Prof. Darren Filson
Christina Nguyen, BA/MA, The Impact of Mortgage Rates on Housing Permit Activity in California: An Analysis of the National Average 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate on California Housing Supply through Building Permit Activity from 2001-2021, Prof. Yong Kim
Benjamin Pelz , BA/MA, Ownership Investments into Sports Franchises: A New Asset Class, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
Alex Wahba, FES, Transfer Valuation Model for European Football Players, Prof. Ricardo Fernholz
Harrison Weier, BA/MA, Startup Outcome: Convexity of Website Traffic as a Proxy for Success, Prof. Nishant Dass
Weiliang Zhang, FES, Were Market Expectation Fulfilled Post-Brexit? An Investigation into European Economies from 2016-2022, Prof. Eric Hughson
Sabrina Zhou, BAMA, The Effect of Remaining Lease Term and Buyer Type on Retail Estate Capitalization Rate: A Case Study of Dollar General Transactions from 2007-2021, Prof. Nishant Dass
2021-2022 Senior Theses
Fall 2021
Kartikeya Agarwal, BA/MA, Comparing Post-IPO Abnormal Returns Between SPACs and Traditional IPOs, Prof. Hughson
Simon Alexander, FES , Ex-Dividend Day Price Drops From 1965 to 2020: Investigating Elton and Gruber’s Marginal Shareholder Tax, Prof. Hughson
Audrey Guilloteau, BA/MA, The Threat of Activist Intervention: A Determinant of 8-K Disclosure for Industrial Companies, Prof. Gillen
Samuel Harrison, BA/MA, Virus Effects vs. Vaccines and Policy Responses: Relative Market Performance Across 80 Countries during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Prof. Burdekin
FJ Husic, BA/MA, Do Hedge Funds and Credit Default Swap Markets Shape Recovery Rates, Prof. Yu
Samuel Johnson, BA/MA, Media Merger Madness: An Event Study Analyzing Acquiror Returns in Media & Entertainment, Prof. Binay
Tanya Kapoor, FES, Retail Investor Attention and Returns of Biotech Stocks, Prof. Binay
Robert Liu, FES, NFT-Related Companies: Token Sale Returns, Prof. Smith
Maisy Mills, FES, The Supplier Shield: COVID-19 Effects on Suppliers of Highly Affected Industries, Prof. Dass
Alexa Nicole Schulten , BA/MA, How Do Firm Characteristics Affect Stock Price Reactions to COVID-19 Fiscal Stimulus? Prof. Binay
Alexandra Wilson, FES, Private Equity – the Rescue or Destruction of Financially Distressed Investments, Prof. Binay
Spring 2022
Brooklyn Button, FES, Corporate Vaccine Mandates: An Event Study on Announcements of Company COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for Employees, Profs. Joshua Rosett & George Batta
Matthew Hines, BA/MA, Bubbles Through the Years: An Examination of Unique and Analogous Characteristics among Financial Manias from the South Sea Bubble to the Great Financial Crisis, Prof. Richard Burdekin
Alexander Karasinski, BA/MA, The Predictive Power of Insider Trading Post IPO Lockup Expiration, Prof. Eric Hughson
Michael Murphy, BA/MA, Securing the overnight Rates: A Study of Alternative Reference Rates in Illiquid Overnight Tri-Party Repo Markets, Prof. Fan Yu
Dylan Porter, FES, Liquidity Outbreak: A 49 Country Analysis of the Money Supply’s Effect on Stock Markets during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Prof. Richard Burdekin
William Smith, FES, The Impact of Merger and Acquisition Events on the United States Video Game Industry, Prof. Nishant Dass
Andrew Wraith, FES, Balance Sheet Strength: A Retrospective Analysis of Corporate Liquidity
and Solvency and Firm Stock Returns, Prof. Peter McAniff
Raizel Yu, BA/MA, Round after round: Understanding dry powder as a determinant of spread in leveraged loans, Prof. George Batta
Jessica Cuna Zamora, BA/MA , How Punxsutawney Phil’s Predictions Affect the Stock Market: A Groundhog Day, Prof. Eric Hughson
2020-2021 Senior Theses
Fall 2020
Alexander Alsop, BA/MA, Investigating the Power of Analyst Price Targets in Generating Abnormal Returns, Prof. Eric Hughson
Alexander Barker, FES, The Impact of Credit Rating Adjustment Methodologies on Market Perceptions of Default Risk, Prof. George Batta
Rebecca Berger, FES, What Factors Are Responsible For The Variation In Stock Market Returns Of G20 Country Benchmark Indices During The 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic? Prof. Murat Binay
Maxwell Dawson, BA/MA, How Good are Equity Analysts? Investigating the Impact of Analyst Recommendations on Portfolio Performance, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
Rishi Raj Deva , FES, The Effect of Firm ESG Performance on the Cost of Issuing Corporate Bonds in the U.S. Debt Market, Prof. Eric Hughson
David “Jake” Halle, FES, Twitter’s Relationship with Overreaction in Individual Security Returns, Prof. Eric Hughson
Declan Judge, BA/MA, Did Sarbanes-Oxley Alter M&A Activity Among Corporations Charged With Financial Accounting Fraud? Prof. Murat Binay
Matiss Ozols, FES, Zoom In, Class Out: An Event Study on Publicly Traded Ed Tech Firm Valuations During COVID-19, Prof. Janet Smith
Dawson Reckers, FES, A Relationship in Flux: Changes in Stock Market Linkages between China and Africa, Prof. Richard Burdekin
Michael “Matt” Sill, BA/MA, Don’t Get Screwed: What Factors Determine the Inclusion of J. Crew Blockers? Prof. George Batta
John Soranno, FES, VC Portfolio Size: Is Bigger, Better? Prof. Janet Smith
Spring 2021
William Birchard, BA/MA, How Debt Restructuring affects the Market Value and Financial Statements of the Retail Industry due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
Ruyan Chu, BA/MA, A Case Study on Chinese Politically Connected Firms Post-US Listing, Prof. Janet Smith
Coleman Cornell, FES, Converged Subset Portfolios: An Extension to Subset Optimization, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
Luke Dhillon, FES, The Effect of the Georgia Senate Runoff Election on the Intradaily Returns of Renewable Energy, Cannabis, and Oil, Prof. Fan Yu
Sean Emery, BA/MA, Impact of CEO Departure for Perceived Ethical Misconduct on Equity Returns: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Market’s Efficiency on Ethics, Prof. Lisa Meulbroek
Benjamin Figueroa, FES, Performance of Pairs Trading within Volatile Markets: Distance, Cointegration, and Copula Methods, Prof. Eric Hughson
Stuti Grover, FES, The Impact of Tweeting Support for Black Lives Matter on Firm Value: An Event Study Analysis, Prof. Darren Filson
Christopher Hu, BA/MA, The Effect of Comprehensive Privacy Legislation on Firms’ Stock Returns: Empirical Evidence from California’s CCPA and CPRA, Prof. Andrew Finley
Andrew Kim, FES, THE EFFECT OF CEO EQUITY COMPENSATION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SILICON VALLEY TECHNOLOGY FIRMS, Prof. Darren Filson
Geun “Kevin” Kim, BA/MA, An Event Study of the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Returns of Franchised & Not-Franchised Firms in the U.S. Restaurant Industry, Prof. Darren Filson
Patricio Madero, FES, Latin American Stock Market Interdependence: A Dynamic Fluctuation Across Time, Prof. Angela Vossmeyer
Cade Moffatt, FES, SPAC Success Factors: Determinants of Post-Acquisition Share Price Growth, Prof. Nishant Dass
Julia Schulman, FES, Gambling Autonomy: The Impact of Latin American Central Bank Independence on Risk Aversion within Monetary Policy Implementation, Prof. Angela Vossmeyer
Chance Sears, FES, Intellectual Capital’s Impact on Corporate Performance During the Age of Digitalization and the COVID-19 Pandemic, Prof. Joshua Rosett
Jeremy Seow, FES, Determinants of a Successful SPAC, Prof. Nishant Dass
Samuel Soo, FES, Diversifying Investment Portfolios with Collectible Sneakers: Expected Returns and Benefits of Diversification, Prof. Janet Smith
2019-2020 Senior Theses
Fall 2019
William Buckstaff, FES, Viral Businesses and Initial IPO Returns, Professor Richard C.K. Burdekin
Dylan Byrd, BA/MA, It’s All Downhill from Here: Evidence supporting downward sloping demand curves for stocks near the Russell 1000/2000 cut-off, Professor Murat Binay
Connor Gaskin, FES, How Announcements of the Qualified Mortgage Patch Expiration Have Impacted the United States Housing Market, Professor Eric Hughson
Justin Hull, FES, Strategies for the Modern Investor: Evaluating Stock Recommendations from CNBC’s Fast Money, Professor Eric Hughson
Nicholas Johnson, BA/MA, Does Complexity Pay? A Study on the Effectiveness of Various Forms of Regression at Fundamental Analysis, Professor Lisa Meulbroek
Konnor Kwok, FES, “Heat Seeking” The Truth: An Analysis of the “Heat Seeker” Trading Algorithm, Professor Murat Binay
Connor Lehner, FES, Do Divested Assets Outperform Full-Scale Acquisitions in the Short-Run?, Professor George Batta
Austin Long, BA/MA, Property-type diversification effects on equity REIT firm value, Professor Eric Hughson
Phoebe Madsen, BA/MA, The Leverage Effect In Mergers And Acquisitions: How the Level and Type of Leverage Affects M&A Success, Professor Lisa Meulbroek
Charles Mangum, FES, “It’s Gonna be Yuge”: The Impact of Chinese Imports on United States Manufacturing Firm Valuations, Professor William Lincoln
Nicholas Pibl, FES, Measuring a Successful Marriage: The Impact of Target Company ESG scores on the Merger Arbitrage Spread, Professor Murat Binay
James Alex Plunk, BA/MA, The Information in Levering Up: An Analysis of Market Reactions to Leverage Changes in Biotech, Professor Eric Hughson
Spring 2020
Jacob Bain, BAMA, Investigating the Relationship Between Interest Rates and Lodging Reit Returns: Analyzing the Variability After the Global Financial Crisis, Prof. Eric Hughson
Tyler Chen, BAMA, A Re-Examination of the Interest Rate Sensitivity of Business Development Company (BDC) Stock Returns, Prof. Janet Smith
Christian Curcio, FES, Analyzing the Minute by Minute Price Reactions to the SP500 future Index Following President Donald Trump’s Tweets, Prof. Eric Hughson
Samuel Garvin, BAMA, The Effect of Signaling Activity by Commodity Producing Companies on Future Operating Performance and Future Commodity Returns, Prof. George Batta
Yiping (Sarah) Lu, BAMA, Predicting Recovery Rates using Machine Learning Algorithms: the Relative Usefulness of Alternative Methods, Prof. George Batta
Alexander McKenna, FES, Explaining Stock Returns Surrounding Novel Drug Approvals Using Drug and Firm Characteristics, Prof. Darren Filson
Lude Rong, FES, Financial Market Reactions to Violation Disclosures from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Prof. Mary Evans
Tanisha Sheth, FES, A Choice Model for Correspondent Banking Relationships, Prof. Angela Vossmeyer
Colton Smith, BAMA, A Further Investigation into the Prevalence of the Winner’s Curse Using Post-Great-Recession Data, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
Samuel Willett, FES, Investor Reactions to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, Prof. Mary Evans
Jingcheng “Eric” Zhu, FES, Robust Backtesting Analysis Evaluating Different Moments Estimation Strategies with Subset Optimization in Large US Equity Universe, Prof. Benjamin Gillen
2018-2019 Senior Theses
Fall 2018
Patricio Aguilar, FES, The Nature of Latin American Markets in the Presence of Credit Events, Prof. Fan Yu
Hannah Berg, FES, Liquidity Risk and Mutual Fund Manager’s Stock Choice, Prof. Eric Hughson
Mackenzie Bradford, BA/MA, To Rely or Not to Rely? A Study of how Analyst Earnings Forecast Error Changes Leading up to Recessions, Prof. Matthew Magilke and Prof. Manfred Keil
Nicholas DeGallier, BA/MA, Venture Capital Investment Duration: Asia, Europe, and North America, Prof. Murat Binay
Yutao (James) Jiang, BA/MA, Leveraged Buyouts: The Predictive Power of Target Firm Characteristics, Prof. George Batta
James Keneally, FES, Modeling Returns on Carbon Emission Allowances: An Application to RGGI, Prof. Mary Evans and Prof. Mark Huber
Jack Lori, FES, The Growth of Socially Responsible Investing in U.S. Equity Markets and Abnormal Sin Stock Returns, Prof. Daren Filson
Logan Miller, FES, California, the Land of Opportunity Zones: Using the Real Estate Market to Evaluate a New Tax Program, Prof. Matthew Magilke
Charles Novogradac, BA/MA, An Evaluation of a Simple Merger Arbitrage Strategy in Middle-Market Mergers and Acquisitions, Prof. Darren Filson
Mark Sui, BA/MA, Do There Exist Industry-Specific Predictors of Deal Failure in Technology M&A?, Prof. Murat Binay
Krystal Sung, FES, Are Women Executives Hurting Firm Performance? An Examination of Gender Diversity on Firm Risk, Performance, and Executive Compensation, Prof. Heather Antecol
Shujie (John) Xia, BA/MA, IPO Underpricing: The Role of Expected Future Business Conditions, Prof. Eric Hughson
Spring 2019
Jared Barclay, BA/MA , Golden Years: Gold Mining Equity Returns After Introduction of the All-In Sustaining Cost Metric, Prof. Matthew Magilke
Chloe Cho, BA/MA, Does managerial risk-taking incentives for R&D investments translate to future earnings? Prof. George Batta
Mackenzie Cooney, FES, YIELD – CURVE MOMENTUM, Prof. Eric Hughson
Matthew Daruty, FES, The Fall of the 10-K Report: Measuring the Impact of Accounting Ratios on Financial Performance, Prof. Matthew Magilke
John Everett, FES, Passive Investing’s Implications for Actively Managed Funds, Prof. Eric Hughson
Roma Forest, BA/MA, Value of Corporate Political Ties in Southeast Asia, Prof. Eric Hughson
Jennifer Mace, FES, Are CDS Auctions the Tail Wagging the Dog? An Empirical Study of Corporate Bond Return Volatility at the Time of Default, Prof. Fan Yu
Alexander Malmlund, FES, The Financial Incentives to Adopting Corporate Social Responsibly and Socially Responsible Investing Practices, Prof. Matthew Magilke
Nikolas Papageorgiou, FES, M&A Performance: Market’s Initial Reaction as an Unbiased Indicator or Post-acquisition Performance, Prof. Murat Binay
Lan Phan, FES, Voluntary Disclosure of Non-Financial Key Performance Indicators during Earnings Releases, Prof. George Batta
John Savard, FES, Abnormal Returns around Lock-Up Expiration Date and the Explanatory Power of Insider Trading for Technology Firms, Prof. Yong Kim
Joseph Scheuer, FES, Growing Earnings Response Coefficients: Are analysts getting smarter, or are investors getting lazy? Prof. Eric Hughson
Patrick Thomas, FES, Financing Method and Abnormal Returns in Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions, Prof. Murat Binay
Sylvan Zhang, FES, The Predictive Power of the VIX Futures Prices on Future Realized Volatility, Prof. Fan Yu