
Thesis topics by CMC students who have completed the CMC Financial Economics Sequence as well as those in the dual degree BA/MA program.
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