Browsing by Subject "Accounting"

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Behavioral Finance: A Study of Gender Affects on Investing Decisions
(2012-08-27) Fish, Jenna;
There is a current debate in the literature as to whether females are more risk averse than males. The studies finding females to be more risk averse studied male and female behavior in the realm of retirement fund selection, while research finding that females exhibit similar levels of risk as males were studies comparing male and female mutual fund managers. In addition to these distinctly different contexts, much of the research that found females to exhibit similar risks as males were completed more recently. To further research the relationship between risk aversion and gender I am investigating what factors affect a person’s risk aversion and whether or not risk aversion is related to gender. My research comes from a study of college-aged students (ages18-22) participating in a classroom investing assignment where students were divided into groups randomly based on gender and given a hypothetical $500,000 to invest in the market with a goal of earning the highest returns. I find that females are shown to be more risk averse. Even when controlling for financial knowledge and experience, females were more risk averse.
Chasing the Magic Bullet: What Strategies do States Use to Bring in Revenue
(2013-08-12) Rieddle, Matthew;
In light of the spate of recent budget shortfalls caused by a litany of ballooning expenses, state governments can no longer afford to maintain their tax systems at the status quo and hope that enough revenue will come in to avoid collapse. This study seeks to identify not only which states have been most successful at raising revenue, but what methods they have used to do it, in order that other states might gain from that knowledge. Beginning with the position that a sales tax is the best tool available for states, the study evaluates quantitative regression analyses of the taxes levied by each of the fifty states from 1961 to 2010 and the resulting revenue those taxes brought in. By making the historical data the subject of the study, instead of merely an input, this paper fills a gap in the current scholarly literature on the topic of state revenue that has sought too often to project questionable assumptions into the future instead of learning from the past. The results of such an analysis will highlight the most successful ways states have been able to keep their coffers full. The study aims to provide a resource for state policymakers who, in many parts of the United States, face a ticking time bomb of future expenditures.
Designing Discipline: How does the market react to accounting restatements in industries with significant intangible value?
(2018) Haworth, Aleah;
Mandatory financial reporting for public companies is intended to increase transparency for shareholders. If a business can raise capital from the public, it was decided that the public had a right to information about the operations of the business they were investing in. However, the creation of mandatory financial reporting was not an absolute solution. Since then, there have been multiple instances of accounting mistakes and fraud that require an accounting restatement. Such market events yield a market response measured by stock price changes. Market responses are commonly researched, but they have not been considered among different industries. This study intends to address a current gap in research by examining the financial market reaction to significant market events among firms with notable intangible value. I accomplish this with an event study following accounting restatement dates. This thesis examines the hypothesis that the financial market is significantly less reactive to restatements in industries with significant intangible value. I use statistical analysis tools including a two-sample t-test, a regression model, a correlation analysis, and a quintile analysis. The research results do not yield a significant difference to support the hypothesis, but compelling motivation for future research was uncovered. Key Words: Creative industry, intangible assets, accounting restatements, market events
Do low repatriations of foreign earnings impact cash flow? An analysis of the effect of Tax Code §965 on multinational corporations
(2016) Longley, Amanda;
The tax holiday on repatriations of foreign earnings instituted by the AJCA did not have the effect of increased U.S. investment its writers intended, but it was taken advantage of by many companies for different reasons. Congress has in recent years considered instituting another such holiday, but little research has been done on the effect of the holiday on companies’ financial health. After the holiday ended, many companies repatriated fewer earnings yearly than they had before the holiday, which may have affected companies’ cash flow. This study investigated the effect of the holiday on cash flow, with reference to several factors that may have added to the effect, using sample of thirty large multinational corporations. The factors examined include the extent to which a company’s operations were overseas, the use of tax havens, and the proportion repatriated of allowed unrepatriated foreign earnings were considered. Regression analysis indicated that the holiday had no statistically significant effect on cash flow, except in that a more extensive use of tax havens was correlated with decreased cash flow.
Liberal U, Liberal You? Does a student's college experience shape his political ideology?
(2016) Vollmer, Taylor;
It has been noted of the past two elections that millennial voters tipped the scales in favor of President Obama. With the same demographic posed to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, it is critical to grasp what drives young voters’ political ideologies and consequent voting behavior. This thesis considers how the college experience shapes students’ political opinions at the University of Minnesota. Whereas prior research has focused on investigating the roles of different social influences on student attitudes (i.e., professors, peers, and media), this case study examines whether length and field of study prompt ideological change. Although no statistically significant evidence was found to associate either length or field of study with material changes in students’ attitudes, this thesis does provide that students’ social political opinions are prone to greater liberalization effects at the University of Minnesota than are their fiscal political opinions. It provides furthermore that differences in social political opinions across colleges can be more significantly explained by students’ indexed responses to issues than by their self-assessed political stances.
Rapid dynamic assessment of expertise: A comparison of performance and mental efficiency measures in accordance with cognitive load theory.
(2007-11) Johnson, David Lloyd
The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of performance measures for instructional adaptation were more effective and efficient than the use of mental efficiency measures. Fifty-three undergraduate accounting students were randomly assigned to a performance group, a mental efficiency group, and a non-adapted control group. Participants were administered an initial diagnostic test, were placed in a training session about accounting cost-volume-profit analysis, and were administered a final diagnostic test, similar to the initial diagnostic test, and a mental effort rating of the training session. Performance group participants were placed in the training session and allowed to skip certain training session stages based on the results of rapid verification tests administered during the initial diagnostic test. Mental efficiency group participants were placed in the training session and allowed to skip certain training session stages based on the results of rapid verification tests and mental effort ratings administered during the initial diagnostic test. The non-adapted control group participants were placed in the training session at the beginning and did not skip any stages. The training session consisted of four difficulty levels, each with five stages. At each stage a faded worked example and a faded completion problem were provided and a rapid verification test and a mental effort rating were administered. Performance group participants advanced to the next stage or repeated the current stage based on the results of the rapid verification test. Mental efficiency group participants advanced to the next stage or repeated the stage based on the results of the rapid verification test and mental effort ratings. The non-adapted control group did not repeat any training session stages. The study produced no significant differences between any treatment groups for instructional time, final diagnostic test score, mental effort rating of the training session, or instructional efficiency (final diagnostic test score divided by mental effort rating of the training session). The author speculated that the non-significant results of the study were attributable to either an insufficient training session length or to the use of faded completion problems rather than conventional problems.
A Recipe for Success: Exploring Cluster Formation in the American Craft Brewing Industry
(2013-08-09) Rosas, Michelle;
The U.S. craft brewing industry was born in the 1970s and has since seen rapid growth. While every state has experienced the emergence of craft brewing to some extent, growth has occurred remarkably unevenly. In 2011, for example, Vermont had one craft brewery for every 26,073 people. Mississippi, meanwhile, had one craft brewery for every 1,483,649 people. Several researchers have described and explained the high growth rate of U.S. craft breweries. There has also been significant research on the subject of cluster theory, focusing on why clusters emerge and how they function. There is a lack of research, however, regarding industry clusters in the craft brewing industry specifically. My thesis aims to address this gap by addressing why craft brewery clusters develop in certain regions and not in others. To identify possible conditions associated with high levels of craft brewery concentration, I propose that three key factors were—and continue to be—important for cluster formation: sense of community, openness to experience, and well-being among a region’s residents. I evaluate the effect of each of these factors through secondary data collection and personal interviews with professionals in the craft brewing industry. My results may be useful to policymakers in other regions who wish to establish a similar
What do the Numbers Impact? A Study of How Cost Accoutning Influences Employee Satisfaction
(2013-08-09) Muralidharan, Roshni;
Cost accounting is used within organizations with a primary objective of helping managers plan, monitor and make decisions. Existing research has focused on different components of cost accounting such as Activity Based Costing, balanced scorecards, budgets and variance analysis. Past research has demonstrated that financial incentive structures influence employee satisfaction. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the relationship linking together these two areas within the context of an organization. My paper addresses this gap in research and examines how the method of cost accounting used in an organization influences employee satisfaction. I propose that employees with career rewards more closely tied to cost accounting targets will be more influenced in their daily job satisfaction. Additionally, I suggest that employees who perceive the organization as using financial incentives effectively will be more satisfied. In order to evaluate these relationships I surveyed MBA students at Carlson School of Management and used multivariate regression analysis to evaluate my data. The effects of career rewards and employee perceptions of organizational support on job satisfaction were not found to be statistically influenced by evaluation based on meeting cost accounting targets. This, however, is likely a result of lack of awareness about the cost accounting method within the organization, as the qualitative data suggested. My research thus highlights the need for more effective communication within the organization regarding cost accounting.
Where the Women Are: The Relationship Between Female Audit Committee Accounting Experts and Audit Effectiveness
(2019) Pundsack, Alanna;
Studies have evaluated audit committee effectiveness in the context of whether audit committee financial experts have accounting experience. The results are currently conflicted and there are arguments why experts with or without accounting experience may be incrementally effective. However, research has scarcely looked at the impact female audit committee members have on effectiveness, and no current study has considered the impact of female accounting experts specifically. This thesis intends to address this gap in the literature by evaluating whether audit committees with a female accounting expert are associated with lower earnings manipulation, a measure of audit committee effectiveness. I evaluate the number of female accounting experts on an audit committee using data collected from proxy statements of S&P 100 companies for the 2018 fiscal year. This data was compared to each company’s Beneish M- score, which measures a firm’s earnings manipulation. The results from the multivariate regression were not statistically significant, so there is no support that a negative association exists between audit committees with a female accounting expert and earnings manipulation. Key words: Audit committee accounting experts, gender, earnings manipulation

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