Ashleigh Eldemire, PhD

Ashleigh Eldemire

Assistant Professor of Finance

Haslam College of Business

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

CV | aep@utk.edu

Peer Reviewed Publications

Does Homeownership Reduce Wealth Disparities for Low-Income And Minority Households? (with Kimberly Luchtenberg and Matthew Wynter) *

Review of Corporate Finance Studies, 2022

Best Registered Report on Discrimination, Disparities, and Diversity in Finance (2022)
Best Paper Award (2023)

We use the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Choice Voucher program as a setting to evaluate the interaction of homeownership and race on the wealth accumulation of low-income households. Using a within-treatment difference-in-differences framework, we establish that low-income households that receive assistance in owning a home experience increased wealth accumulation relative to their tenure as renters. These wealth gains are not present among low-income minority households. Our findings provide evidence that homeownership is a driver of wealth formation for low-income households and that homeownership does not inherently reduce racial disparities in wealth.

The Effect of Labor Mobility on Corporate Investment and Performance over the Business Cycle (with John Bai & Matthew Serfling)

Journal of Banking and Finance, 2024

We show that time-series variation in investment opportunities and labor demand create heterogeneity in the effects of labor mobility on corporate investment over the business cycle. To isolate variation in labor mobility, we create an annual state-level index from 1984 through 2017 that captures the degree to which state courts enforce covenants not to compete. We find that firms located in more mobile labor markets increase investment rates more during economic expansions but have similar investment rates during periods of low or negative growth. This increased investment during expansions is greater for firms that rely more on recruiting skilled and experienced workers to grow their businesses, and it translates into higher sales growth rates, profits, and valuations. Overall, our results suggest that the benefits of being able to recruit qualified workers with relevant experience during expansions outweigh the costs associated with losing key workers.

Working Papers

Black Tax: Evidence of Racial Discrimination in Municipal Borrowing Costs (with Kimberly Luchtenberg and Matthew Wynter) | SSRN

Municipalities with higher proportions of Black residents pay higher borrowing costs to issue rated bonds compared to other cities and counties that issue within the same state and year. These higher costs are unexplained by credit risk, more pronounced in states with higher levels of racial resentment, and robust to state-tax incentives to hold municipal bonds. In time-series tests using political election periods during which racial resentment has been shown to intensify, we find that the differences in borrowing costs also increase. Collectively, the findings illustrate that racial bias can increase borrowing costs, especially where racial resentment is severe.

Media Coverage:

A ‘Black Tax’ Costs US Cities Millions They Can’t AffordPlaces like Memphis, where schools are crumbling, pay more when they borrow on Wall Street.

Does Homeownership Preserve Wealth for Low- Income and Minority Senior Households? (with Kimberly Luchtenberg and Matthew Wynter) | Dropbox

We use the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Choice Voucher program to evaluate whether homeownership preserves wealth among low-income and minority senior households. We apply a within-treatment difference-in-differences framework to establish that homeownership leads to wealth formation for households with children, which reduces the wealth disparities between low-income households. These wealth gains do not occur for senior households without children. We observe similar wealth dynamics for low-income and minority senior households. Thus, we provide evidence that homeownership can be a driver of financial inclusion among low-income senior households that does not inherently increase disparities in wealth.

Convertible Debt and Target Leverage Adjustments | SSRN

I examine how contrasting debt and equity aspects of convertible bonds affect an issuer’s ability to correct target leverage deviations. Convertibles may help leverage adjustment efforts by lowering security issuance transaction costs, reducing debt interest expenses, and providing new equity upon conversion (back-door-equity). However, convertible bonds can also increase leverage for an unknown amount of time until conversion.

I find that issuers--both those above and below their leverage targets--experience faster adjustment speeds when convertible debt is offered. They appear to use convertibles to refinance existing debt, increase retained earnings, and provide back-door-equity. My findings suggest that the use of convertible debt positively impacts cumulative leverage levels and partial adjustment speeds.

Education

University of South Carolina , Columbia, SC

Moore School of Business — M.S., 2014 ; Ph.D., 2018

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

College of Engineering — B.S.E., 2010

Boston Latin Academy, Boston, MA

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