Research Opportunities

A primary goal of the Financial Economics Institute is to foster student and faculty research. In pursuance of this goal, the Institute offers student research analyst positions that allow students to work closely with faculty on their research projects.

In addition, the Institute serves as a gateway for students completing the senior thesis and other major research projects. A sampling of recently completed student projects can be found below.

• The effects of survivorship on overall US equity returns (Justin Hance '06 - Supervised by Professor Brown)

• Academic Retirement Plans: How Costly are the Limits on Diversification? (Michael Karp '07, Joyce Qi '07, and Chris Urban '07 - Supervised by Professor Brown and Professor Smith)

• Analyzing option exchange programs (George Malikov HMC '06 - Supervised by Professor Meulbroek)

• CEO Finance Background: Effects on Firm Free Cash Flow and Capital Structure (Eva Nazarewicz '05 - Supervised by Professor Rosett and Professor Smith)

• Project analyzing the effects of publishing earnings restatements (Karthik Raju '08 and Daniel Simon '07 - Supervised by Professor Helland)

• Project investigating how the linguistic characteristics of the Federal Reserve communication affect financial markets (Paul VanDeventer '07 - Supervised by Professor Hess)

• The Stock Market as a Predictor of Post-Merger Success (Mitchell Browne '05 - Supervised by Professor Meulbroek)

• Violating Security and Exchange Commission Regulations and Evaluating Account and Auditing Enforcement Releases: Does Board of Directors' Experience and Expertise Influence Decision-Making? (Katie Burgess '05 - Supervised by Professor Rosett)

• Altruism or Advertising? Corporate Donations to Tsunami Relief (Daniel Cahir '05 - Supervised by Professor Meulbroek)

• Price Clustering Phenomenon in the Dow (Ryan Greene '05 - Supervised by Professor Brown)

• An Empirical Analysis of Section 404: Implications for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Peter Hellwig '05 - Supervised by Professor Brown and Professor Rosett)

• Demystification of Pension Plan Risks and Evaluation of Short-Term Default Risk (Elliott Lee '05 - Supervised by Professor Meulbroek)

• The True Cost of Executive Stock Options (Mark McKelvy '05 - Supervised by Professor Meulbroek)

• A Review and Comparison of Multiple Valuation Techniques Using Financial Statements Provided by a Privately Owned Corporation (Garrett Myklak '05 - Supervised by Professor Brown)

• Optionetics: Worth Its Weight in Gold, Or Does It Only Cost That Much? (Ben Rogers '05 - Supervised by Professor Meulbroek)

• The Gender Earnings Gap in U.S. Corporations and its Link to Executive Performance (Elizabeth Saliba '05 - Supervised by Professor Brown)

• Dutch Auction IPOs: An Analysis of Underpricing and Performance in the United States (Tanya Soluk '05 - Supervised by Professor Brown)

• The Effect of Option Exchange Program on Firm Value: Examining the Significance of Incentive Alignment (Hirotaka Son '05 - Supervised by Professor Meulbroek)

• Street Cred: Impact of Investment Bank Reputation on Privately Placed Equity (Diane Tran '05 - Supervised by Professor Brown)

• Valuation of Defined Benefit Pension Plan Obligation Using Different Discount Rates and Its Correlation with Market Returns (Ben Xu '05 - Supervised by Professor Rosett)