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FORMER
STUDENT WINS PRIZE FOR UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH IN
FINANCE
Please
Note: For a complete text of the prize-winning research
papers, see the UW-Madison's Finance Department web site at
http://finance.bus.wisc.edu/Wiscabstracts.htm
Information on next year's competition is also available on
that website.
MADISON,
WI -- Two students were awarded a total of $12,000 in a
national competition for applied undergraduate research in
finance conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison
School of Business.
Lora
McInturf from Ohio University and Stephen Moeller of
Princeton University are winners of the Wisconsin Prize
competition.
The
competition, which was held for the first time in 1999,
called for undergraduate students at accredited U.S.
universities and recent graduates to submit examples of
applied research in finance to a panel of judges assembled
at UW-Madison. It was sponsored by UW's Finance
Department.
"Both Lora
McInturf and Stephen Moeller presented work of outstanding
quality," noted UW Finance Professor David Brown, who
organized the competition. "They detected interesting trends
in commercial banking and credit unions, both fertile areas
for applied research. "
Lora
McInturf's research on commercial bank underwriting received
a $5,000 award. She investigated the relationship between
commercial banks and long-standing corporate clients in
light of the recent relaxation of the Glass-Steagall banking
act. McInturf collected a unique data set of underwriting
and lending relationships between commercial banks and their
clients. She examined whether it would be possible for
lenders to issue overpriced debt securities to the public
for a client the bank privately knows to be in
distress.
McInturf's
research found evidence that these apparent conflicts of
interest, although feasible in principle, are unlikely to
occur in practice. She concluded that private underwriting
arrangements are a substitute for regulation in mitigating
conflicts of interest in financial markets.
McInturf,
who graduated from Ohio University in June 1999, has entered
the graduate accounting program at Indiana
University.
Stephen
Moeller's research, which won the $7,000 grand prize,
centered on the apparent weakening of the common bond among
credit union members as the organizations grow in
size.
David
Brown noted, "Our research competition for undergraduates is
an innovative way for us to encourage students to consider
the value of research in finance, and for us to discover
talented undergraduates. We want undergraduates to
understand the power and value that research brings to a
finance practitioner." He said the UM-W Finance Department
plans to hold another competition for undergraduate applied
research in finance this coming academic year.
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