Some are worrying about the future of commercial real estate because of recent falls in valuations. Our expert discusses the challenges facing CRE and how to disentangle the trends that are shaking up the sector.
Chief Economist Gerald Cohen outlines three possible paths for the U.S. economy in coming months, as well as the indicators to keep an eye on.
With economic growth can come growing pains, such as an increased cost of living and displacement of local businesses. An NCGrowth report examines how communities with a large manufacturer can minimize those pains.
Productivity is the single most important determinant of a society’s standard of living. But how can you gauge it, and why does it matter? In this second report from the American Growth Project, we examine the productivity levels of the 50 largest microeconomies in the United States along with how those productivity levels have shifted during the last 15 years.
The endowment will provide top UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School students with leadership education, cross-sector collaboration skills and undergraduate research opportunities.
We study the performance and information acquisition behavior of mutual funds for both their long and short positions. We show that managers acquire relatively more information about their shorts because the benefit of acquiring information about shorts is larger.
As autoworkers continue to strike, there are concerns about how the work stoppage could affect the automotive supply chain, which is still adjusting to challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the sales process in business markets, customers often are assisted by two types of sales reps: customer-focused reps (CSRs) and operations-focused reps (OSRs), who work together to ensure smooth buying experiences. Because these reps work jointly, selling firms often evaluate reps’ performance according to overall output, without assessing or quantifying their respective individual contributions to customer buying decisions. The authors of this study propose using value-added metrics that pertain to three drivers of value: (1) CSRs, (2) OSRs, and (3) the interface between CSRs and OSRs. This approach leverages variations in CSR–OSR combinations and produces both individual CSR–OSR and dyadic or interface value-added metrics. To address the empirical challenges (i.e., limited variations in CSR–OSR combinations), they use empirical Bayes random effect estimation to produce best linear unbiased prediction.
By all accounts, there is steady good news coming the Federal Reserve’s way. And yet, the Fed seems to be in no rush to start cutting rates. Dive deeper into what the Fed will do to make sure inflation remains at that 2% goal.
We are proud to announce the winners of the 2024 Kenan Institute Student Awards, including five awards, presented through a generous gift from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Fund, to recognize students who have exhibited outstanding service and commitment.
New Kenan Institute Research Economist Sarah Dickerson says that while her research and writing will help further the institute’s mission, "I also aim to expand the mission’s scope by reframing some of the fundamental questions being asked."
...Five Economic Trends to Watch in 2024 Commentary Midyear Regional Economic Growth Estimates: EMAs Performing Better Than Expected, but Large Disparities Remain Commentary American Growth Project: Top-Performing EMAs for 2025...
The paper studies the nowcasting of Euro area Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth using mixed data sampling machine learning panel data regressions with both standard macro releases and daily news data.
In this edition of the Dean Speaker Series, join us for an engaging lunchtime keynote with Dean Mary Margaret Frank and Nate Holobinko on Friday, November 8, as a part of the 2024 UNC Business of Healthcare Conference.
With COVID-19 cases on the rise, much uncertainty remains about how much more damage the pandemic will inflict on the U.S. economy, particularly on certain sectors and small businesses. What is clear, however, is that many businesses will continue to require infusions of capital to stay afloat, and that private sector capital providers will need to play a role in long-term recovery efforts. In this Kenan Insight, we explore how those providers will need to shift their approach to risk assessment in the post-COVID world, and what opportunities might be created for investors who can solve two outstanding issues.
Puerto Rico’s unique characteristics as a U.S. territory allow us to examine the channels through which (sub)sovereign default risk can have real effects on the macroeconomy. Post-2012, during the period of increased default probabilities, the cointegrating relationship between real activity in Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland breaks down and Puerto Rico spirals into a significant decline. We exploit the cross-industry variation in default risk exposure to identify the impact of changes in default risk on employment. The evidence suggests that there are significantly higher employment growth declines in government demand and external finance dependent industries. An additional real effect of default anticipation is that heightened default risk Granger causes Puerto Rico’s austerity measures. An event study analysis using government bond yields and stock returns confirms that news of increased default risk increases the cost of capital for the Puerto Rican government and for publicly traded Puerto Rican firms.
We investigate a novel determinant of financial distress, namely individuals' self-efficacy, or belief that their actions can influence the future. Individuals with high self-efficacy are more likely to take precautions that mitigate adverse financial shocks. They are subsequently less likely to default on their debt and bill payments, especially after experiencing negative shocks such as job loss or illness. Thus, non-cognitive abilities are an important determinant of financial fragility and subjective expectations are an important factor in household financial decisions.
This study examines the effect of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) on information uncertainty in IPO firms. The JOBS Act creates a new category of issuer, the Emerging Growth Company (EGC), and exempts EGCs from several disclosures required for non-EGCs. Our findings are consistent with proprietary cost concerns motivating EGCs to eliminate some of the previously mandatory disclosures, which increases information uncertainty in the IPO market, attracts investors who rely more on private information, and leads EGCs to provide additional post-IPO disclosures to mitigate the increased information uncertainty.
This study shows that initiation of CDS trading for an entity’s debt increases the share of loans retained by loan syndicate lead arrangers and increases loan spread. These findings are consistent with CDS initiation reducing the effectiveness of a lead arranger’s stake in the loan to serve as a mechanism to address the adverse selection and moral hazard problems in the loan syndicate.
We explore the impact of Knightian uncertainty on contracting within a multi-layered firm. We study a setting where, absent uncertainty, division managers should be paid based on their division performance, but not other divisions' performance.