Research Seminars

Upcoming Seminars

Fall 2022 - TBD

Past seminar speakers

Speaker	Affiliation
Kai Li	University of British Columbia
Stacey Jacobsen	Southern Methodist University
Alan Crane	Rice University
Quan Wen	Georgetown University
Kevin Crotty	Rice University

Spring 2020

Presenter
Kai Li University of British Columbia
Stacey Jacobsen Southern Methodist University
Alan Crane Rice University
Quan Wen Georgetown University
Kevin Crotty Rice University

Fall 2019

Time and Place	Presenter
August 30, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 429	David Dicks Baylor University	Brian Kim Baylor University
November 1, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 117	Antonio Macias Baylor University
November 15, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 117	Huibing Zhang University of Texas at Dallas
November 22, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 117	Hyunseob Kim Cornell University
December 6, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 117	Wenyu Wang Indiana University

Spring 2019

Time and Place	Presenter	Topic
May 3, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 416	Ivan Shaliastovich University of Wisconsin	Title: How Risky are the U.S. Corporate Assets?
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April 26, 2019		Title:
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April 12, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 416	Neil Pearson University of Illinois	Title: Does Trading Have a Pervasive Impact on Underlying Stock Prices?
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April 5, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 401	Zhi Da Notre Dame University	Title: Extrapolative Beliefs in the Cross-Section: What Can We Learn from the Crowds?
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March 22, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 416	Tim Loughran Notre Dame University	Title: Information Complexity: Measuring Firm Complexity by Annual Report Word Usage
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March 1, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 416	Umit Gurum UT Dallas	Title: Knocking Off Firm Value
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February 22, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 316	Robert Dittmar University of Michigan	Title: Default Risk and the Pricing of U.S. Sovereign Bonds
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February 15, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 416	Kewei Hou Ohio State University	Title: q⁵
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January 25, 2019 10:30 - 12:00 Foster 416	Jun Li UT Dallas	Title: The Expected Investment Growth Premium
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Spring 2018

Time and Place	Presenter	Topic
April 20, 2018 10:00 - 11:30 am Foster 416	Shawn Mobbs University of Alabama	Title:
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March 16, 2018 10:00 - 11:30 am Foster 416	Tao Shu University of Georgia	Title:
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February 23, 2018 10:00 - 11:30 am Foster 416	Vineet Bhagwat George Washington University	Title:
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February 16, 2018 10:00 - 11:30 am Foster 416	Martijn Cremers Notre Dame	Title:
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February 9, 2018 10:00 - 11:30 am Foster 416	Taylor Begley Washington University in St. Louis	Title:
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February 2, 2018 10:00 - 11:30 am Foster 416	Jordan Nickerson Boston College	Title:
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January 19, 2018 10:00 - 11:30 am Foster 416	James Choi Yale University	Title:
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Spring 2017

Time and Place	Presenter	Topic
April 28, 2017 1:30 - 3:00 pm Foster 302	Bob Parrino Lamar Savings Centennial Professor Finance and Director of the Hicks, Muse Tate & Furst Center for Private Equity Finance, McCombs College of Business, UT Austin	Title: Uncertainty, Prospectus Content, and Price Updates Prior to Initial Public Offerings
Abstract: We investigate how information gets incorporated into initial public offering (IPO) share prices. We find that greater uncertainty about the value of a firm’s shares is associated with a more conservative anticipated price range and more content concerning efforts to exploit growth opportunities in the offering prospectus. The evidence suggests that potential investors help incorporate the value of this growth option related content into the IPO price through the book-building process. However, not all of the relevant information is reflected in IPO prices. The evidence is also consistent with investors being compensated for their price discovery efforts through underpricing.
April 21, 2017 1:30 - 3:00 pm Foster 302	Vince Kaminski Professor in the Practice of Energy Management Jesse H. Jones School of Business, Rice University Mitch Taylor Manager Director, Cooper Investment Partners Houston, TX	Panel Discussion: The real story behind the rise and fall of the Enron Corporation (Lessons Learned)
Abstract: Our panelists each played unique rolls at Enron during the years of greatest prosperity and fall from grace. Vince served as the Managing Director for Research which employed more than 50 analysts who developed quantitative models to support energy trading at Enron. Mitch was held a variety of corporate development and finance positions at Enron. He stayed on at Enron and co-led the corporate development group that disposed of $11 billion of Enron’s assets.
April 7, 2017 1:30 - 3:00 pm Foster 302	Avishai Schiff PhD Student, McCombs College of Business, UT Austin	Title: Labor Mobility and Financial Leverage
Abstract: In this paper I analyze two competing effects of labor mobility on capital structure. Labor mobility may lead to higher leverage if mobile workers suffer reduced costs of financial distress. However, it may lead to lower leverage if mobile workers demand more rigid wages or are more likely voluntarily leave distressed firms. I formalize this intuition in a static model of labor mobility, worker separation, and optimal debt choice. I then empirically test the relationship using a new measure of labor mobility that relies on occupational dispersion and shocks to local labor markets. Using national employment shocks to instrument for local employment changes, I find that higher mobility firms choose lower financial leverage.
March 31, 2017 1:30 - 3:00 pm Foster 302	Joe Cunningham, MD Founding Partner Sante' Health Ventures, Austin, TX	Title: The state of the healthcare industry in America
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March 24, 2017 2:30 - 4:00pm Foster 302	Carey King Asst Director of the Energy Institute, Jackson School of Geosciences, UT-Austin Larry Lake Shahid and Sharon Ullah Endowed Chair in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering, UT-Austin Gene Shepherd Brigham Resources, LLC, Austin, TX Stacey Atchley Professor and Chair of the Geology Department, Baylor University	Panel Discussion: The true cost of energy and the future of the industry

March 17, 2017 1:30 - 3:00pm Foster 302	Shane Underwood Baylor University	Title:
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February 24, 2017 1:30 - 3:00 pm Foster 302	Gustavo Grullon Jesse H. Jones Professor of Finance, Rice University	Title: Are US Industries Becoming More Concentrated?
Abstract: More than 75% of US industries have experienced an increase in concentration levels over the last two decades. Firms in industries with the largest increases in product market concentration have enjoyed higher profit margins, positive abnormal stock returns, and more profitable M&A deals, suggesting that market power is becoming an important source of value. In real terms, the average publicly-traded firm is three times larger today than it was twenty years ago. Lax enforcement of antitrust regulations and increasing technological barriers to entry appear to be important factors behind this trend. Overall, our findings suggest that the nature of US product markets has undergone a structural shift that has weakened competition.
February 17, 2017 1:30 - 3:00 pm Foster 302	Chris Meyer Baylor University	Title: An Introduction to Negotiation
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January 27, 2017 1:30 - 3:00 pm Foster 302	Jeff Sandefer Founder, Master Teacher, Acton Academy, Austin, TX	Title: Your Future as a Professor: Bright or Bleak?
Abstract: There is no paper for this talk as I have asked Jeff to come share his thoughts on the future of higher education in America. Jeff is very knowledgeable about the subject (he sits on the advisory board of the Harvard Business School).
January 20, 2017 1:30 - 3:00 pm Foster 302	Keith Brown University Distinguished Teaching Professor & Sarofim Fellow, McCombs School of Business, UT Austin	Title: The Decision to Concentrate: Active Management, Manager Skill, and Portfolio Size
Abstract: Several recent studies establish that more highly concentrated portfolios produce superior risk-adjusted returns. The untested premise of this literature is that it is the most skillful managers who hold the most concentrated portfolios and that, commensurate with their security selection abilities, these portfolios outperform. In this study, we formally examine the implicit assertion that the initial portfolio concentration decision is meaningfully related to a manager’s inherent investment skill. First, we present a simple theoretical model showing that the greater the manager’s skill level, the more concentrated the portfolio should be. Second, we conduct an extensive simulation analysis of the capacity to make accurate ex ante security return forecasts and show that while an unskilled investor’s optimal portfolio is fully diversified, skilled managers would select only about 3-20% of the available securities and that the portfolio concentration decision is directly proportional to investment prowess. Finally, we provide an empirical examination of the actual skill-concentration relationship in the mutual fund industry. For actively managed U.S. equity funds over 2002-2015, we document that fund managers who indicated skill in the past do form portfolios with higher concentration levels. We conclude that talented asset managers should and actually do hold more concentrated portfolios and that the extent of this concentration decision is meaningfully related to forecasting skill.

Fall 2016

Time and Place	Presenter	Topic
November 11, 2016 1:30 - 3:00 pm Foster 329	Laura Starks McCombs College of Business, UT Austin	Title:
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October 28, 2016 1:30 - 3:00 pm Foster 329	James Weston Jones School of Business, Rice University	Title: A Focus on Identification Issues in Natural Experiments
Abstract: The seminar will combine my last two RFS papers that have been on identification/natural experiments. I will present those papers and focus on methodology.
October 27, 2016 12:30 - 2:00 pm Foster 322	Giorgo Tsertsios Universidad de los Andes, Santiago,Chile	Title:
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October 19-22, 2016	FMA

October 14, 2016 1:30 - 2:30am Foster 329	Viral Acharya NYU Soku Byoun Baylor University Zhaoxia Xu NYU	Title: The Sensitivity of Cash Savings to the Implied Cost of Capital
Abstract: We show that firms save cash largely from equity issue proceeds when the implied cost of capital (ICC) is relatively low. Moreover, the sensitivity of cash savings to the ICC is significant especially for firms with greater hedging needs. The ICC also has significant impacts on the probability and the amount of equity issuance. Firms with greater hedging needs tend to issue more equity in excess of their financing needs when the ICC is relatively low. These findings suggest that firms' cash savings are driven by the hedging motive to mitigate future financing costs.
September 30, 2016 1:30 - 3:00 pm Foster 329	Ioannis Spyridopoulos Jones School of Business, Rice University	Title: Tough Love: The Causal Effect of Debt Covenants on Firm Performance
Abstract: I investigate whether restrictive loan covenants disrupt or promote firm operating performance. Using an instrumental variable approach to address the endogenous relationship between covenant strictness and firms' efficiency, I find stricter loan covenants cause an increase in profitability and a reduction in operating cost. Stricter covenants improve performance only when large shareholders have no presence on firms' boards, when managers are entrenched, or when firms face softer competition in their product market. The evidence is consistent with the view that the design of debt contracts can mitigate agency costs in firms that lack alternative governance mechanisms.
September 23, 2016 1:30 - 3:00 pm	Todd Gormley Washington University	Title: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Effect of Passive Investors on Activism
Abstract: We analyze whether the growing importance of passive investors has influenced the campaigns, tactics, and successes of activists. We find activists are more likely to pursue changes to corporate control or influence (e.g., via board representation) and to forego more incremental changes to corporate policies (e.g., via shareholder proposals) when a larger share of the target company’s stock is held by passively managed mutual funds. Furthermore, higher passive ownership is associated with increased use of hostile, expensive tactics (e.g., proxy fights) and a higher likelihood the activist obtains board representation or the sale of the targeted company. Overall, our findings suggest that the increasingly large ownership stakes of passive institutional investors mitigate free-rider problems associated with certain forms of intervention and ultimately increase the likelihood of success by activists.
September 9, 2016 1:30 - 3:00 pm	Antonio Macias Baylor University	Title: A Review of Research Methods Commonly Used to Address Causal Inference in Financial Research
Abstract: Research design for causal inference is at the heart of a "credibility revolution" in empirical research. We will cover the design of true randomized experiments and contrast them to natural or quasi experiments and to pure observational studies, where part of the sample is treated in some way, the remainder is a control group, but the researcher controls neither the assignment of cases to treatment and control groups nor administration of the treatment. We will assess the causal inferences one can draw from a research design, threats to valid inference, and research designs that can mitigate those threats.