Leverage and the Global Supply Chain

This study examines the effects of global supply chain pressures on firm leverage ratios. I find that firms have historically responded to global supply pressures by reducing their total debt ratios.  However, during the extreme pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, firms sharply increased short-term debt values while also reducing long-term debt. This suggests that firms respond to moderate supply chain pressures by increasing their debt capacity, which is then utilized during unanticipated acute scenarios. Such findings emphasize the importance of global supply chain conditions as a discrete macroeconomic determinant of corporate policy.

A Review of LNG Hubs Development, Market Integration, and Price Discovery

with Betty Simkins, Ivilina Popova, and Thomas Lee

This study provides a literature review of academic research related to liquefied natural gas (LNG) hubs development and market integration. Studies show that Asian markets lack a transparent pricing benchmark that exists in North American and European markets. As a result, the formation of functional LNG market hubs in the Asia Pacific region will take time. Early research evidence suggests a strongly cointegrated relationship between LNG and crude oil. Concurring with more recent findings, we confirm that LNG's statistical relationship to both WTI and Brent ceases after the break dates of August 2008 and October 2015, respectively. Multiple initiatives are underway to facilitate development and price discovery for global LNG markets. However, the conclusions found within prior literature are dependent upon the sophistication of the estimation model and sample ranges employed.

Gridiron CEOs: Revising the Executive Excess Pay- Future Performance Nexus (Job Market Paper)

The managerial pay-performance nexus is more accurately described by defining compensation as a discounted annuity occurring over the life of a contract. A unique NCAA football setting enables us to observe a  coaches' entire professional history, as well as all contract compensation components. We evaluate the empirical advantages of our compensation estimation design as well as answer whether over- and under-paid salaries impact future performance. Our results show that firms non-myopically incorporate previous performance during contract negotiation and that when a total contract is excessively overpaid, future team performance suffers. Such negative returns are the result of performance compensation, not guaranteed pay. These findings concur with the excess compensation literature, while being antithetical to much of the prevailing sports and managerial "pay-for-performance" research. However, further investigations suggest that significant empirical biases stem from the annual compensation specification ubiquitous within the broader managerial literature. 

Covariance Matrix Jumps In High-Frequency Financial Markets 

with Louis R. Piccotti

Jumps and cojumps are examined in the covariance matrices of high-frequency financial markets. We propose a new method for identifying intraday volatility jumps in the diffusive covariance matrix of asset pairs. Our method avoids model misspecification errors, is able to identify multiple intraday jumps, and provides standard normally distributed test statistics. Performance is tested using Monte-Carlo simulated and tick level foreign exchange market data. Empirical evidence reveals the presence of jumps in both price and covariance matrices, with covariance jumps occurring at an increased rate. Simulation results demonstrate our proposed method correctly identifies covariance

jumps at a statistically high rate and with no spurious detection.