Changing Gears – Page 8 – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Changing Gears

Data is asset – Evaluating the market value of databases

The topic of research concerns where SEC-licensed broker-dealers send their securities trades to be executed by financial services companies and if the payment for this order flow (PFOF) depends on the broker internalization’s market power and/or the broker-dealer’s trading volume. This research seeks to answer why certain broker-dealers send their trades to certain financial companies to execute their orders and if this reveals anything about trade practices. The SEC 606 reports that track this information are newly revised as of 2020 so this is fairly untouched public information that has had little-to-no analysis currently preformed on it. The main methodology used for data collection was simply searching through the broker-dealers websites for their 606 report which details where they send their trades to be executed and how much it costs to route orders to each firm. I tracked every broker-dealers information on an Excel spreadsheet and we will use this information to draw conclusions. We hope to find meaningful connections between broker-dealers order routing practices and the amount of market power they hold. We think there will be some connection between the amounts paid to certain companies and the amount of influence these firms have over the financial system. We don’t have any conclusions yet but we hope to start the data analysis soon. We hope to find patterns in our research that point to some conclusion on why certain companies behave the way they do with financial institutions and the implications that may have. This project hopes to shed some light on financial practices between institutions and to better explain how our financial system is structured as a whole and how much market power influences financial transactions. The results we find may help public policy makers, economists, politicians, etc., who all may use data such as this to have a basis for the functioning of our financial system.

Data is asset – Evaluating the market value of databases

The project aims to evaluate how the market value reflects the value of the firms’ data accumulation. Traditionally, the market value can be estimated using the discounted cash flow (DCF) method. This approach is flawed because the prediction of future cash flow is always inaccurate. This project uses firms’ data accumulations as inputs. Regression models are fitted to quantify the results.

What is on the table? Peer effects within A Large Canadian Restaurant Chain

Jianglai Zhang Pronouns: she/her/hers Research Mentor(s): Luchi He, Research Assistant of Dr. Yue Maggie Zhou Research Mentor School/College/Department: Strategy department, Ross School of Business Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021 Session: Session 1 (10am-10:50am) Breakout Room: Room 20 Presenter: 4 Event Link Abstract For privacy concerns this abstract cannot be published at this time. Authors: …

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Methods of exploring the effects of verb causativity on reaction time

Our research focuses on methods of studying how causativity of verbs affect our processing of them and therefore our reaction time, and how these reaction time effects can be isolated from other sentence processing effects like general lexical prediction. In a previous study conducted by Dr. Levinson, it was found that there is an added level of complexity in transitive variants of causative verbs as compared to transitive variants of non-causative, or activity, verbs. This was concluded by measuring reaction times in self-paced reading tasks of sentences with verbs of transitive and intransitive, as well as causative and non-causative variants. For example, a causative transitive verb appears in the sentence “The sun melted the ice”, whereas an example of a causative intransitive verb appears in the sentence “The ice melted”, which differs from an activity verb, such as “ate”. The complexity of causative verbs vs. non-causative verbs is something that has long been debated, and helps to better understand linguistic processing. Our research mainly focused on using different methods of studying this causativity phenomenon other than self-paced reading tasks, as well as determining the best methods for disentangling verb representations from lexical confounds.

Impact of School Policy Change on School Enrollment: Evidence from Mozambique

Enrollment in primary and secondary education in Sub Saharan Africa has lagged behind much of the rest of the world. Amongst numerous potential reasons, the fees to attend school is often considered a prohibitive barrier in accessing public education. In 2018, the government of Mozambique introduced legislation abolishing the fees for school enrollment in grades corresponding to the school-ages of 6 to 12. Previously on average, the fee for primary school is 21,410 meticas ($354 USD) per child per year for grades 1 to 5 and Mt 60,013 ($992 USD) per child per year for grades 6 and 7. This study explores the efficacy of this policy change and its external validity with respect to education in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“What are you laughing at?” Cross cultural investigation into international Chinese students’ understanding of US minority group humor

Listening courses in graduate EAP curricula typically focus on academic listening, such as in lectures and seminars (Flowerdew 1995). However, much listening occurs outside of the classroom, with students frequently expressing frustration at not being able to understand or participate in peer conversations about cultural issues such as current topics and humor. To expose international students to diverse voices and content in a non-academic listening course, we utilized examples of US minority group humor, Key and Peele videos, from the Chinese media platform Bilibil. We present our first findings from small listening groups discussing one Key and Peele video, showing that students draw on home culture interpretations when encountering unfamiliar US culture and humor. Chinese students specifically are using an internet practice already familiar to them, live commenting (Danmu), as a tool to deepen their understanding of English, general US culture and minority group culture. We hope to create materials for the new culture class by evaluating students’ depth of understanding of important current aspects of US (minority) culture.

Data Gathering Data Analysis Toward Better Air Quality Outcomes in SW Detroit

In support of the ongoing initiatives by community advocates to cut diesel emissions in Southwest Detroit, this research aims to gauge the effects on air quality that commercial vehicles have in residential areas when using their streets as routes. SW Detroit has some of the highest levels of PM and toxic pollutants measured in Detroit, with Detroit having the worst air quality conditions in Michigan. This study accesses the ambient air quality in residential areas that have a high frequency of commercial trucks traveling their streets. We want to know how each passing truck contributes to the air pollution on the street it is using.

A Review of People’s Perceptions of COVID-19 and Adherence to Public Health Policy

From early 2020 to 2021, the unprecedented outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wuhan has evolved into a pandemic. As coronavirus impacted people’s daily life, public transportation and recreational facilities worldwide, countries implemented various public health guidelines to help their cities recover from the virus attack. To understand international differences and similarities in people’s thoughts about the novel coronavirus and associated public health guidelines, I conducted a literature review to examine: 1) people’s perceptions of the coronavirus; 2) people’s adherence to public health policies (e.g., face masks, social distancing, and hand hygiene); and 3) potential reasons for the differences (e.g., cultural beliefs). I reviewed research articles related to the effectiveness of general public health guidelines in major countries in North America, Europe and Asia (e.g., the U.S, U.K., and China respectively) and the opinions of residents regarding the current rules they need to follow. My findings indicate that even though residents in eastern and western nations share basic knowledge about the coronavirus, people from western countries still have some misconceptions about the coronavirus. If people are more optimistic, they are more willing to adhere to public health policies. Based on these findings, future research can focus on the development of new tailored strategies to combat transmission of the coronavirus, such as raising people’s awareness.

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