Hurricane Ian destroyed property and disrupted livelihoods in some of Florida’s largest and most rapidly growing coastal and inland counties.
In this paper, we develop new methods for analyzing high-dimensional tensor datasets. A tensor factor model describes a high-dimensional dataset as a sum of a low-rank component and an idiosyncratic noise, generalizing traditional factor models for panel data. We propose an estimation algorithm, called tensor principal component analysis (PCA), which generalizes the traditional PCA applicable to panel data.
In kicking off the new year, we at the Kenan Institute want to highlight five topics we anticipate will be top of mind for business leaders and policymakers during the 12 months ahead. Although some of these challenges – such as the recession we expect – can be painful, they also present opportunities. To help you navigate this rapidly evolving economic landscape, the Kenan Institute will work to provide solutions-focused analysis on the following as well as related issues throughout 2023.
For more information, contact Dr. Kim Allen at Kim_Allen@kenan-flagler.unc.edu.
This study provides evidence that nonbank institutional investors that participate in loan syndicates value inside information obtained through lending agreements with bellwether borrowers. The private information nonbank institutional investors obtain from lending relationships with bellwether firms can help identify trading opportunities in other public market securities. Thus, we predict and find that institutional investors compensate bellwether firms by charging a lower loan spread.
Most retailers operate under the assumption that stabilizing employees’ schedules would hurt their financial performance because instability is an inevitable outcome of variable demand patterns in retail stores. We tested the validity of this commonly held belief. The goal of our experiment was to determine if it is possible to improve schedule stability without hurting financial performance.
Companies are turning to ideation contests to engage ideators outside company boundaries to solve their complex problems. Our research focuses on how articulating the problem, specifically the number and type of constraints described within the problem statement (brief), is related to the number of ideas submitted by participants in ideation contests.
For more information, contact Phil Hardy at: Phil_Hardy@kenan-flagler.unc.edu.
Virginia’s rapid population growth over the past three decades has been uneven, creating demographic winners and losers, and masks several demographic headwinds that will constrain future growth and competitiveness if left unaddressed, including slowing rates of total and foreign-born population growth, white population decline, deaths of despair, and declining labor force participation among prime working age males and females in the state.
In the run up to the financial crisis, the essential functions financial intermediaries played seemed to become less important. Commercial and industrial loans, as well as residential mortgages, the quintessential banking products, were securitized and sold.
In the U.S. automobile industry, manufacturers distribute products through dealers and rental agencies. To mediate direct competition between the two intermediaries, manufacturers adopted buyback programs to repurchase used rental cars from rental agencies and redistribute them through dealers.
Brands and branding are key to achieving competitive advantage in global markets. Yet, brands and their managers are facing new challenges and opportunities in light of numerous trends and disruptions that are changing the landscape of marketing in an international context. The climate crisis, a pandemic, and deglobalization winds—marked by China–West trade tensions, wars, and other trade-related disruptions, to name a few—are challenging branding around the world.
For more information, contact Dr. Kim Allen at Kim_Allen@kenan-flagler.unc.edu.
Using a large database of U.S. equity position-level holdings for hedge funds, we measure the degree of securitylevel crowdedness. The crowdedness factor is related to downside “tail risk" as stocks with higher exposure to crowdedness experience relatively larger drawdowns during periods of market distress. This tail risk extends to hedge fund portfolio returns as the crowdedness factor explains why some funds experience relatively large drawdowns.
Although the power held by the marketing department can determine key organizational outcomes, including firm performance, this power seemingly has been decreasing. To address this apparent disconnect, the authors propose that the board of directors is a critical but overlooked antecedent of marketing department power (MDP).
The last 20 years have been a period of tremendous growth for the PE industry. From its roots in the 1970s and 80s in the buyout and venture capital spaces, private capital has expanded dramatically in both scope and scale. Funds have gotten larger, the investor pool has broadened and the largest players have transformed themselves into fully diversified alternative asset managers, with offerings across a wide range of geographies and asset classes.
We conduct what is, to our knowledge, the first systematic examination of Chinese-based firms that utilize a variable interest entity (VIE) structure to evade Chinese regulation on foreign ownership to list equity in the U.S. The use of the VIE structure is not only questionable under Chinese laws but also exacerbates the agency costs within the firm. We find that Chinese VIE firms have a Tobin’s Q as much as 35% lower than Chinese non-VIE firms, and this discount is concentrated in firms with higher risks of government intervention and managerial expropriation. To remediate these risks, VIE firms are more likely to have a politically connected director on the board, hire a Big N auditor and have higher levels of institutional ownership.
The UNC Energy Center and the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise hosted a conference on "Meeting the Renewables Intermittency Challenge" on April 13-14, 2018. The conference, and resulting white paper, examined the true cost of integrating renewable energy generation into the electric grid and explore ways to address the challenges posed by wind and solar energy intermittency.
In partnership with the AICPA, the UNC Tax Center's expert panel will share an overall economic outlook for 2021, a look at the Biden administration’s expected tax policy direction, the tax legislative outlook for 2021 and beyond and possible administrative and regulatory actions.