We find evidence of systematic optimism and pessimism among credit analysts, comparing contemporaneous ratings of the same firm across rating agencies. These differences in perspectives carry through to debt prices and negatively predict future changes in credit spreads, consistent with mispricing. Moreover, the pricing effects are the largest among firms that are the most opaque, likely exacerbating financing constraints.
We examine the interplay of behavioral and environmental uncertainty in shaping the effectiveness of two key governance mechanisms used by strategic alliances: contractual and trust-based governance. We develop and test hypotheses, using a meta-analytic dataset encompassing over 15,000 strategic alliances across 82 independent samples. We find that contractual governance works best under low to moderate levels of behavioral uncertainty and moderate to high levels of environmental uncertainty, while it is detrimental to alliance performance when both types of uncertainty are low or high.
Performance measurement and event studies frequently assume a specific stochastic process for stock returns. The purpose of this paper is to validate the predictive accuracy of various stochastic processes on data different from those used in estimating the models. The main conclusion is that multi-factor models estimated with factor analytic techniques provide more accurate forecasts than the usual market model with either an equal- or value-weighted index, and Fama–French three-factor model.
We present preliminary work to construct a knowledge curation system to advance research in the study of regional economics. The proposed system exploits natural language processing (NLP) techniques to automatically implement business event extraction, provides a user-facing interface to assist human curators, and a feedback loop to improve the performance of the Information Extraction Model for the automated parts of the system.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are an important mechanism through which new technology is adopted by firms. We document patterns of labor reallocation and wage changes following M&As, consistent with the adoption of technology. Specifically, we show target establishments invest more in technology, become less routine task intensive, employ a greater share of high technology workers, and pay more unequal wages.
We evaluate the effects of two types of breaks (expected versus unexpected), and two distinct forms of unexpected breaks, and find that unexpected breaks can, under certain conditions, yield immediate post-break performance increases.
In 2016, NCGrowth partnered with the University of North Carolina at Pembroke to help the university find ways to significantly increase its local sourcing of goods and services. The sourcing project has become a catalyst for economic development in rural Robeson County, allowing more money to remain in the local economy and helping businesses, such as Lumbee-owned hydroponic produce grower MG3 Farms, succeed.
Using the approach of Ghysels, Santa-Clara, and Valkanov (2005), after correcting a coding error pointed out to us, we find that the Merton model holds over samples that exclude financial crises, in particular the Great Depression and/or the subprime mortgage financial crisis and the resulting Great Recession. We find that a simple flight to safety indicator separates the traditional risk-return relationship from financial crises which amount to fundamental changes in that relationship.
The Institute for African American Research and NCGrowth are hosting a multi-disciplinary conference to connect academic researchers and Black Communities across North America. By creating new collaborations, we will help to document, safeguard and enhance the life of these communities.
On Sept. 9-11, 2019, the Kenan Institute and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute for African-American Research will co-host the second Black Communities Conference, an international gathering of scholars and community leaders from across the African diaspora. The conference's core mission is to connect academics from a variety of disciplines with black communities, with the goal of enhancing the life of those communities. Hear more from Kenan Institute Managing Director and conference co-chair Mark Little.
The 2019 North Carolina Investment Forum convened a highly select group of private capital investors who back N.C.-based companies. By providing a chance to share information on investment strategies, markets and life-cycle investment policies, the forum ensured all participants left with a greater understanding of how the public and private sectors can better work together to bolster investment in the North Carolina economy. Linda McMahon, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Association, served as the keynote speaker.
On Sept. 9-11, the Kenan Institute co-hosted our second Black Communities Conference with the Institute of African American Research in downtown Durham, North Carolina. Attendees came from around the world to collaborate across disciplines. Black Communities is a a vibrant and uniquely important gathering featuring panel discussions, local tours, film screenings, workshops, keynotes and more. Our core mission is to foster collaboration among Black communities and universities for the purpose of enhancing Black community life.
The Black Communities Conference, a.k.a. #BlackCom2019, is a vibrant and uniquely important gathering featuring panel discussions, local tours, film screenings, workshops, keynotes and more. Our core mission is to foster collaboration among Black communities and universities for the purpose of enhancing Black community life and furthering the understanding of Black communities. Black Communities: A Conference for Collaboration is co-hosted by the Institute of African American Research and the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.
This afternoon, President Trump is expected to formally declare the nation’s opioid abuse epidemic a public health emergency – just as proceedings get underway at the Kenan Center at an expert roundtable discussion on the same topic.
The Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise hosted the first-ever “Business of Healthcare: Adapting to an Aging Economy” conference at the Kenan Center in Chapel Hill October 27. Featuring distinguished scholars, healthcare professionals and business leaders from around the country, the event centered on the effects of America’s aging population on the economy and the resultant need for changes in areas such as real estate, adaptive technologies, pharmaceutical packaging and labeling, healthcare options and workforce policies. Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, delivered the keynote address.
Medicare observation status has remained controversial since its introduction as an administrative payment category dating back to at least 1983. Much of the debate revolves around beneficiary billing and the 3-day rule, which requires that beneficiaries spend 3 consecutive days as an inpatient in order to receive coverage for postacute skilled nursing facility (SNF) care.
Governors across the United States have reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic by implementing state-level executive actions to address a range of issues provoked by the crisis. Although it is too early to gauge the long-term effects of the pandemic and states’ responses to it, this Kenan Insight provides a preliminary analysis of actions governors have taken thus far, to help inform policymaking going forward. This briefing features CREATE Director and UNC Kenan-Flagler Professor Maryann Feldman, Rethinc. Labs Faculty Director and UNC Kenan-Flagler Professor Eric Ghysels, UNC-Chapel Hill Political Science Professor Christopher Clark and North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Kody Kinsley.
This week our panel of experts examined the effects of COVID-19 on the healthcare system, its providers and supply chains. The briefing featured UNC Center for the Business of Health Faculty Director Brad Staats, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professors Jay Swaminathan and Vinayak Deshpande, UNC Hillman Scholars in Nursing Innovation Director Cheryl Jones and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Chief Strategy Officer Bryony Winn.
A panel of experts from the North Carolina CEO Forum, convened by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and its affiliated Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, offered a press briefing via webinar to introduce a new framework aggregating real-time, non-standard economic and public health data to guide critical policy decisions on economic openness. This press briefing features UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professor & Kenan Institute Research Director Christian Lundblad, Kenan Institute Senior Fellow & Carroll Family Holdings Founder David Carroll, First Citizens Bank Vice Chair Hope Bryant and Kenan Institute Executive Director and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professor Greg Brown.