Smith School In the News
May 2023
GARP Risk Intelligence – May 22 – Measuring Corporate Culture: It’s Complicated” quotes Clinical Professor of Finance Clifford Rossi: “Culture is important because it establishes whether or not risk management is viewed in a favorable way as a valued business partner,” [said Rossi]. “Any institution that does risk management well has a good risk culture – good risk DNA – from the board to the executive committee and on down the line,” Rossi insisted. “The tone is set from the top. It will provide that stature and credibility for risk management to be effective in this role.”
MiM Guide – May 22 – Suresh Acharya, academic director of MS in Business Analytics programs, comments in “ChatGPT Boosts Appeal of Masters Programs in Business Analytics”: [The Smith School] is also adapting its MS in Business Analytics program to ensure students are prepared to enter an AI-driven work environment. In the “Big Data and AI” course, the school encourages faculty to have a discussion on these emerging technologies to provide a reasonable grounding. “There are also co-curricular activities, workshops, guest speakers and virtual conferences, through which students are getting more exposure to these topics. AI will only continue to grow – we need to make sure our students are prepared for it,” [says Acharya]. Additionally, the excitement around the possibilities of generative AI appears to have boosted already-high interest in studying business analytics at the master’s level. “The demand for our MS in Business Analytics continues to be robust. Our students are getting internship offers that have turned into job offers. We have had students receive multiple offers, as well.”
Washington Post – May 21 – “The Man in Charge of Knowing When the U.S. Runs Out of Money” quotes Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender: “I could not, to this day, tell you his politics,” said Michael Faulkender, who served as assistant secretary for economic policy during the Trump administration. Faulkender worked closely with Lebryk when Treasury was tasked with figuring out how to send tens of millions of stimulus payments during the coronavirus pandemic, an effort Lebryk helped lead. “He always seemed to be relaxed and under control.” … Related: Faulkender discusses economic policy including the debt ceiling via WABC radio’s Larry Kudlow Show.
National Mortgage News – May 18 – “More Disclosure on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Fees Needed: House Hearing” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: …[Rossi] also called for more disclosure in LLPAs, and suggested potentially rethinking them altogether. “While on the surface it can be argued that the LLPAs are transparent by virtue of pricing by risk attribute, the exact mechanics are murkier, thus setting the stage for second-guessing the new grids and the need for a new approach,” he said. “I actually propose eliminating the current [credit score/loan-to-value ratio/LLPA] grids altogether and updating the guarantee fees consistent with achieving a target rate of return taking into account the [Enterprise Regulatory Capital Framework].”
Baltimore Sun – May 18 – Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender comments in “Baltimore’s CFG Bank has Grown its Own Way, Quadrupling in Size in Just a Few Years”: There is a balancing act at the core of nearly every lender. Any bank can tip into trouble if it has too many long-term assets and short-term depositors pull out their money, [Faulkender said]. Silicon Valley Bank, for example, failed in March because it purchased a large amount of U.S. Treasury bonds during the pandemic, when interest rates were at historic lows, Faulkender said. As interest rates rose, these long-term securities lost value, he said, spooking depositors who withdrew their money. In other words, there was a bank run. “That liquidity transformation issue is the fundamental challenge in banking,” Faulkender said. “Anybody could be caught in that dilemma if you are doing any kind of low-interest lending funded out of deposits.”
HousingWire – May 18 – “House Subcommittee Takes Aim at FHFA’s LLPA Policies” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi from his related congressional testimony: “Today we have a sort of Frankenstein approach to credit pricing, cobbling together average pricing for ongoing fees with quasi-risk-based pricing for upfront fees,” he said in his written statement. “It is no surprise then that we have arrived at a place where so much heated debate has occurred on these fees. Fundamentally, the FHFA should immediately eliminate the FICO and LTV LLPA grids and request the Enterprises to update their guarantee fees to reflect that change while conforming to actuarial-based pricing.”
B Magazine – May 18 – “Mid-Atlantic B Corps Help Advance the Study of Business as a Force for Good” includes: We then heard from Nima Farshchi, from University of Maryland’s Center for Social Value Creation and Office of Experiential Learning, about how students are being engaged in projects, live case studies, classroom coaching, and direct interaction with B Corps and social entrepreneurship.
The FCPA Blog – May 18 – “Board-level ‘Risk Committees’ are Great, Unless they Destroy the Company” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: First Republic’s risk committee was notable because it was the board’s only standing committee with just three members instead of five, according [to Rossi]. And although the risk committee had an outside advisor, “none of the three members have direct banking risk management experience; their backgrounds are in health care, venture capital and academia, though they each are highly accomplished in their respective fields.” … Expertise is essential for a nuanced understanding of risk. Prof Rossi, who I mentioned above, says “while audit is critically important, the diversity and complexity of risks require a very different set of skills, balanced between quantitative and qualitative.”
TalkMarkets – May 16 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass details “Major Changes To Berkshire Hathaway’s Portfolio During The First Quarter Of 2023” and gives 2023 Percentage Returns Of 5 Largest Stocks (May 20). … Related: Kass discusses U.S. inflation the inflation rate and the potential for a recession, via Sina News (May 6).
GARP Risk Podcast – May 12 – In “Risk Management’s Latest Trial by Crisis,” Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi discusses recent turmoil in the banking system, where risk management fell short, and the profession’s readiness for future challenges… Related: Rossi writes guest column, “What lessons can be learned from the recent banking crisis?” in American Banker’s May 2023 issue.
Poets & Quants – May 12 – “Best & Brightest Online MBAs: Class Of 2023” includes profiles of graduating Smith students McGeady Bushnell and Wing Pokrywka and references them in its main feature: Back East, the University of Maryland’s McGeady Bushnell has been serving as the Congressional and Legislative Liaison for the U.S. Navy’s Chief of Naval Personnel. Here, he assists in developing policies that support over 450,000 sailors and their families. … The Class of 2023 is packed with happy endings…Wing Pokrywka’s exposure to data-driven decision-making enabled her to hit the ground running when she was hired by Instacart as a senior marketing manager before finishing her final year at the University of Maryland’s Smith School.
FIND MBA – May 12 – Adam Schpall, career services assistant director and MBA career consultant, comments in “Life after an Online MBA: A World of Possibilities,” including: [Schpall] says employers are looking for skills related to leadership, strategic thinking, communication, the ability to work collaboratively and network, as well as analytical thinking, problem-solving and resilience. “You will notice that a lot of these skills are soft skills, as many of them can’t be farmed out to the bots,” he adds, in an apparent nod to artificial intelligence.
Maryland Daily Record – May 10 – “UMD Smith launching Doctor of Business Administration Program” announces the program “designed for working professionals to elevate their careers as leaders in business organizations and government agencies that utilize cutting-edge technologies and business analytics to drive growth and innovation.” … Coverage also via AIThority, Inside Higher Ed’s ‘Colleges New Programs‘ and others.
Wall Street Journal – May 9 – “This Strategy Beat the World’s Top Hedge Funds—Don’t Try it” cites Russ Wermers’ research (False Discoveries in Mutual Fund Performance: Measuring Luck in Estimated Alphas): In a sobering study released more than 15 years ago designed to weed out mere luck, academics Laurent Barras, Olivier Scaillet and Russ Wermers looked at thousands of mutual funds between 1975 and 2006 and determined that only 0.6% of managers had enough demonstrable skill to outweigh their funds’ costs.
CNBC – May 9 – “The 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50: How we Chose the Companies” identifies Michael D. Dingman Chair in Strategy and Entrepreneurship Anil K. Gupta as part of CNBC’s Disruptor 50 Advisory Board.
Wall Street Journal – May 9 – Some Airlines Avoid Twitter, Putting a Popular Travel Hack at Risk quotes Roland Rust, Distinguished University Professor and David Bruce Smith Chair of Marketing: Other social-media platforms are “not really set up for the same kind of response to individual comments as Twitter is,” [says Rust].
Maryland Today – May 9 – “UMD Risk Study Helps Maryland Homeowners Prepare for Weather Extremes” features Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi’s newly created index to help homeowners, financial services firms and governments prepare for the increasingly volatile weather.
Food Safety Magazine – May 9 – Abhay Grover, PhD candidate and instructor in supply chain management, writes guest column, “Transforming Food Safety: How Autonomous Mobile Robots are Changing the Inspection Game.”
Hindu Business Line – May 9 – “Greening the MBA, Not Greenwashing it” includes: The traditional pedagogical approach in management education should be re-evaluated in favour of a more personalised and modern approach such as heutagogy. This learning approach, which is centred on self-determined learning, is more closely aligned with the demands of the modern workplace and the development of transferable trans-disciplinary skills that are essential for life-long learning. Incorporating heutagogy through self-directed projects and coaching, business schools such as the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and the Faculty of Business at the University of Wollongong are embracing this approach in their MBA and executive education programmes.
National Mortgage Professional Magazine – May 2023 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi produces op-ed: “Why Nonbank Mortgage Companies Bear Close Watching.”
CNBC – May 6 – “Warren Buffett on Microsoft-Activision Deal: Microsoft has Met the Opposition More Than Halfway” shows Buffett responding to a question from Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass during the 2023 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder’s Meeting: CNBC’ Becky Quick: “This question comes from David Kass, who is a professor at the business school at the University of Maryland: ‘At last year’s annual meeting, Warren [Buffett] mentioned that Berkshire had taken a large stake in Activision Blizzard as a merger arbitrage play. Since the UK regulator has blocked its acquisition by Microsoft, has Berkshire reduced or sold its stake?’ Buffett (condensed): I think Microsoft has been remarkably willing to cooperate with governing bodies. They wanted to do the deal and met them – the opposition – it seems to me more than halfway. But that doesn’t mean that it gets done if a given country, in this case, the UK, wants to block it…
Marketplace Radio – May 5 – Associate Clinical Professor of Finance Elinda Kiss contributes to “Here’s Why the U.S. has so Many Banks”: In the last 50 years, deregulation has allowed lenders to operate across state lines, making it easier for them to merge when they’re in trouble. Alas, here we are with 4,000 banks. Elinda Kiss, who researches financial regulation at the University of Maryland, expects that number to shrink. “Yes, I think we will see more consolidation. I don’t have an idea what’s the perfect number of banks,” she said. She said no one really knows the magic number between too many banks and too few with too much market power.
The M Report – May 5 – “How Digitalization Changes How People Search for, Finance Housing” quotes Assistant Professor of Information Systems Lauren Rhue from her ‘Commentary on Digitization of the Housing Search’ paper: Carrying out these efforts requires more clarity about key values and goals, writes Lauren Rhue (University of Maryland, Smith School of Business) in her commentary on the papers. Illustratively, she observes, fairness in credit is relatively easy to understand: all borrowers with the same profile should receive the same amount of credit. In contrast, “societal disagreement about what fairness means for previously redlined neighborhoods and their residents” will hamper efforts to use digitalization to address discrimination in those neighborhoods.
CNBC – May 4 – “Berkshire Hathaway is Outperforming During Turmoil, but Warren Buffett’s Favorite Child Geico is in Trouble” quotes Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass: In 1976, Buffett invested at $2 per share in Geico when it was in financial trouble, and Berkshire acquired the rest of the company in 1995. “It was sort of Buffett’s first love,” said David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “I think he has a strong emotional and sentimental attachment to it.” Kass recalled Buffett referring to Geico as his “favorite child” during a meeting with his students in 2005.
Maryland Today – May 4 – Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender explains the urgency to raise the federal debt ceiling, in “That Absolutely Has to Happen.” … Related media appearances include Faulkender discussing issues surrounding the debt ceiling showdown via Fox Business’ The Evening Edit and interest rates in a Just the News segment on Real America News.
Wall Street Journal – May 4 – "Warren Buffett’s Formula for Success: One Good Decision Every Five Years" quotes Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass: David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland’s business school, rattled off some more, from railroads (Burlington Northern) to razors (Gillette). But at the top of his list was the transformative investment that Mr. Buffett has called his first business love. This romance began in 1951, when Mr. Buffett learned that his professor and intellectual hero Benjamin Graham was chairman of Geico and rode the train from New York to Washington to visit its corporate headquarters. He arrived on a Saturday morning only to discover that Geico’s employees weren’t in the habit of working on Saturday mornings. Finally, a custodian heard Mr. Buffett pounding on the doors and not only let him inside but introduced him to the other person in the office, which is how the eager young student found himself receiving an education in the insurance business from the CEO. The compassion of a weekend janitor would alter the course of business history, as Mr. Buffett’s investment in Geico began his lifelong fascination with insurance… Related: The New York Post quotes Kass in “The fight for fortune and family who sold Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway”: “Buffett did it out of sheer vindictiveness…He bought the company (a failing New England textile company called Berkshire Hathaway) to get back at the guy (Seabury Stanton) who had been trying to cheat him.”
Washington Post – May 3 – Why Your Flight is Early, Even When it’s Late: quotes Distinguished University Professor Roland Rust: “You can’t really know if the flight is going to be on time because they put in this fudge time,” said [Rust]. “But if the plane takes off on time, it’s definitely going to be on time.”
Maryland Today – May 3 – “Study Suggests Fixes for Persistent Geographic Inequity in Liver Transplants” describes research into increasing equity in liver transplants for people from around the country while preserving the maximum number of viable organs for transplant, by Dean's Professor of Management Science and Operations Management Raghu Raghavan, Associate Professor of Marketing Liye Ma and Smith PhD graduate and Carnegie Mellon University faculty member Shubham Akshati.
American Banker – May 3 – “Renewed Volatility in Regional Bank Stocks Puts Pressure on Policymakers” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: JPMorgan's purchase of First Republic was intended to calm fears, but investors are thinking that the crisis “isn't behind us,” [said Rossi]. “We're in an environment where deposits are willing to move at a moment's notice at the first sign of panic,” he said, adding that banking executives and regulators may not have fully grasped the “instantaneous” impact of deposit runs in an era of digital banking. Related: Rossi writes, in his CRO Outlook column for GARP Risk Intelligence, “First Republic Fallout: A Call for More Effective Bank Board Risk Committees.”
Barron’s/Agence France-Presse – May 1- Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi comments in “Relief at First Republic Sale, but US Banks Still Face Pressure”: SVB, First Republic and a third casualty, Signature Bank, were essentially “one-offs,” said [Rossi]. “Going forward, JPMorgan taking over First Republic does put that chapter behind the industry,” Rossi said. … However, the Fed has said new capital rules and other big changes “would not be effective for several years” following public comment, according to the central bank’s April 28 report on the SVB failure. But Rossi said that in the wake of the bank failures, the Fed will feel pressure to demonstrate it will be proactive in trying to get ahead of problems. … “Any time an event like this takes place, the regulators get much more assertive,” Rossi said. … Related: Law360’s “How RE Headwinds Shaped First Republic Risk-Sharing Deal” quotes Rossi, including: "We've seen it for some time — there were rising delinquencies on the auto and credit card side, a lot of rumbling going on about the commercial real estate market, particularly the central cities with the return to work post-COVID not going that quickly," said Rossi. "There are a lot of vacancies going and cash flows being left behind." … Rossi discusses the ‘Fed’s Review of SVB’s Collapse,’ via WTOP and comments in “In Review Highlighting its Own Failures, Fed Calls for Tighter Regulations on Banks,” for Sinclair’s National Desk.
HousingWire – May 1 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi addresses recent changes to LLPA fees in op-ed: “Setting the Record Straight on Mortgage Pricing.” … Related: Inman News’ Fannie and Freddie’s Fees Going up Monday Despite Industry Objections quotes Rossi, including: But [Rossi said] the pricing changes “will increase the cost of borrowing for a sizable borrowing cohort that presents very low credit risk while greatly lowering the cost of borrowing for borrowers that pose significant credit risk to Fannie and Freddie,” Rossi said in a commentary piece Tuesday.
April 2023
Poets & Quants – April 30 – Associate Clinical Professor of Marketing Mary Beth Furst comments on Smith MBA Philip (P.J.) Thomas in his Best and Brightest MBAs: Class of 2023 profile, including: As the President of the MBAA, he was a strong supporter of the STEM designation for the MBA program because he saw how it will improve the graduate experience for international students in the future. I believe his previous experience with Global Citizen’s Curtis Fellowship primed him to look for such opportunities. As program manager, he focused on marketing efforts to grow the fellowship program dedicated to developing professional and leadership skills in college-age South African students.
All Events In – April 28 – Previewed is “Henry Ford, Elon Musk, and the Journey from Genius to Infamy” – a lecture in Chicago on May 18, 2023, by Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship David Kirsch, hosted by Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society.
Science Newsnet – April 28 – Charles E Smith Chair in Finance and Distinguished University Professor Pete Kyle explains why the “Fed-Predicted Recession is More Likely Severe than Mild.”
Capital B – April 28 – Assistant Professor of Information Systems Lauren Rhue comments in “Black People Still Experience Racial Bias in the Hiring Process. Can AI Help?”: “If you can create a machine learning algorithm to make recommendations as opposed to a human making those decisions, you see more diversity just because the criteria is consistently applied. We can benefit from just having consistent criteria,” she said. But companies must have the “political will” at every stage of the process to minimize the bias, she added. “There’s cause for hope in the use of these technologies. We just need to have the will to try to increase diversity at every single stage,” Rhue said. “If we can get that political will, then a lot of the issues with AI bias will fall away, and a lot of the promise of the technology will come to the forefront.”
DS News – April 28 – “Collaboration Between Professor and Students Take on Mortgage Climate Risk” describes new research led by Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi to quantify climate risk for homeowners and mortgage lenders, including: “This is not just about managing risk, it's also about managing uncertainty—a much harder game.” Rossi led a group of 11 students in Smith's Master of Quantitative Finance program in a recent experiential learning project with government-sponsored mortgage enterprise Freddie Mac. The students built a model that leverages machine learning to pinpoint the regions of the country with the highest climate risk and the implications for homeowners and the mortgage industry.
The Daily Caller – April 26 – “A Down Payment On Fiscal Sanity” op-ed by Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender includes …“There is no prospect of Congress balancing the budget this year, and a default on the national debt would be both financially catastrophic and a source of national embarrassment. The debt ceiling must be raised. At the same time, the federal government has a spending problem…”
Maryland Today – April 25 – “U.S. News Ranks UMD Graduate Programs Highly” includes: For specific programs, the highlights this year include: The Robert H. Smith School of Business’ information systems program at No. 11 and part-time MBA at No. 21 (a jump from No. 25 last year)… The Smith School was ranked No. 12 overall for online MBA programs earlier in 2023, in addition to online marketing at No. 6, online MBA business analytics program at No. 8; online MBA programs for veterans at No. 10 and online general management at No. 11; online masters in business programs (excluding MBA) at No. 16.
Law360 – April 24 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi comments in “Independent Mortgage Banks Face New Scrutiny,” including: With that money, the IMBs originate the home loans, which they then securitize or sell, typically to Ginnie Mae and the other government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “Here's the problem with these kinds of institutions: They are thinly capitalized to begin with,” said Rossi. “In the mortgage space, they are what we call monoline entities, meaning they're at the mercy of the mortgage cycle. So feast or famine, basically.” Additionally, IMBs' liquidity is “highly dependent” on funding from commercial banks and other private sources, Rossi said. “But imagine, like what we had happen here with the recent bank failures ... if they have very few lines of credit, meaning their own funding sources are not diversified, they can evaporate in a moment's notice," he said. "And that is really problematic.”
Yahoo Finance Live – April 24 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass discusses the Fed’s 2019 decision to loosen rules for midsize banks, bank regulation, and the outlook for regional banks in “U.S. Banking: Smaller Companies ‘More Likely to go to Regional Banks,’ professor says.” ... Related: TalkMarkets (April 23) excerpts Kass’ comments in “Smith Experts React To Fed Recession Prediction”
Association for Talent Development – April 24 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi writes “Avoiding Risk Events Through Better Training.”
Wall Street Journal – April 21 – “Fed Rethinks Loophole That Masked Losses on SVB’s Securities” quotes Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass: “One way of making banks safer for the whole economy is to ensure a larger capital buffer,” said David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
New York Times – April 21 – Professor of Practice and the Academic Director for the MS in Business Analytics programs Suresh Acharya adds context to “Help! Spirit Airlines Left Us Behind in Guatemala City,” including: [Acharya cautioned that we should not expect all airlines to have equally deft, customer-friendly communications systems. “It may have just been a manual oversight,” he said. “With Spirit or another low-cost, no-frills airline, their IT infrastructure and integration are probably not that automated.” He noted that since delays are costly to airlines, often requiring overtime payments to crews and causing delays that can ripple across the system, airlines will jump on any chance to speed up departures even after delays have already been announced, although it sometimes means leaving passengers behind. This is especially true on international flights and at domestic “slot-controlled” airports where the F.A.A. has imposed limits on takeoffs.
Maryland Today – April 21 – “Faculty Member Appointed to Maryland House of Delegates” profiles Sarah Wolek, senior faculty specialist for the Management and Organization Department.
NBC News – April 20 – “Big Businesses Rally to Preserve Their Right to Limit Ex-Workers’ Job Options” quotes Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr: The outcome of the battle will affect large swaths of the U.S. workforce. Roughly 30% of private sector employers currently use noncompete agreements for all their workers, [said Starr]. Businesses that use the policies typically cite the need to protect trade secrets and other sensitive information from rival firms looking to poach talent.…In the five years after Oregon banned enforcement of noncompetes for employees earning less than the median U.S. family income for a family of four, hourly workers’ wages grew 6%, Starr’s research found, and their job mobility also rose 17%. “There are many things that firms can do to protect themselves without noncompete agreements,” Starr said. If the FTC adopts new limits, he said, “we’ll definitely see more of the reliance on nondisclosure, non-solicitation [agreements] and more of the kind of perks such as higher wages, better benefits, etc.” … Related: American Antitrust Institute announces Starr joining the AAI Advisory Board of experts in the fields of antitrust and consumer protection law economics, and business in the United States and abroad.
Maryland Today – April 20 – “Pitch Dingman Winner Closes the Hood on Labs’ Energy Waste” features Sustainabli, a UMD-student-led startup, which developed Sashimi Sash Manager—an installable lab sensor and digital dashboard— to reduce energy loss from fume hoods in laboratories, among multiple winners in the competition hosted by Smith’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship.
Sinclair’s The National Desk via CBS Austin – April 20 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi comments in “Securing a loan more difficult after bank collapses, including”: “Banks are just generally becoming more cautious. In some senses, they’re a harbinger of what might be lying ahead, so they’re anticipating a slowdown,” said [Rossi]. “If that happens, then with higher rates still kind of out there, borrowers are going to be facing more difficulty in getting loans, qualifying for high-quality loans…We know the banks are well-capitalized, generally speaking, so they will be able to withstand when people talk about a mild recession and whatnot,” Rossi said. “We’ll see what that looks like, but I don’t think that the liquidity issues that we saw were necessarily at all related to economic weakness, or potential economic weakness as much as it was in part due to the market being spooked over the unrealized losses due to interest rates rising and that banks had perhaps not managed that interest rate risk exposure.”
WTOP – April 19 – “Maryland Grad Aims to ‘Change Generationally What Health Care’ Looks Like” profiles Aishwarya Tare (College of Information Studies ’22) and her transformative “Meridian Health” app, as a $10,000 prizewinner in the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship’s Pitchman Dingman Competition (Audio version of story).
DC News Now – April 19 – Associate Professor of Marketing Bobby Zhou gives consumer advice via “Apple Launches High-Yield Savings Account, Why Shopping Around for Rates May Stretch Consumers’ Cash”: [Zhou] told DC News Now that consumers should review savings account deals regularly. “Just because you are attracted to a nice offering initially, does not mean that you can give Apples, and Googles and Amazons the right to lock you in for an extended period of time and then as a consumer you miss out on better opportunities elsewhere.” “The big takeaway here is that as long as consumers are being very careful, they are paying attention to their monthly statement credits, I don’t think they have significant worries [about signing up for savings accounts],” Zhou said.
VOA News – April 17 – Lemma Senbet, William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance, comments (0:42-1:15 in embedded video) in, “Event Brings Diaspora Together to Support East Africa”: “Those of us in the diaspora have left the region, but the region has not left us. So, this is a mechanism for us to give back – to give back not just money, but also capacity-building, technical assistance and get connected so that we help the world from where we came from and impact life there.”
WTOP – April 17 – “Did Your Flight Arrive Early? Airlines Plan it That Way” quotes Roland Rust, Distinguished University Professor and David Bruce Smith Chair in Marketing: “The airline apps have made it easier for passengers to keep up with potential delays. Sometimes the messages in the apps are ahead of what they know at the gate,” [said Rust] “Besides purchasing travel insurance and reading the small print on the insurance policies, there really aren’t many, or any, strategies that passengers can use to protect themselves from delays,” he said.
TalkMarkets – April 15 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass gives the “2023 Percentage Returns Of 5 Largest Stocks.”
GARP Risk Intelligence – April 14 – “Silicon Valley Bank: The Postmortems Came Fast and Furious” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi, including: For Clifford Rossi and Sim Segal, risk management veterans and consultants now also in university roles, the latest crisis has re-exposed recurring managerial and behavioral weaknesses. [Rossi] perceived a “disconnect” between SVB’s public statements and filings – “they were making it sound like [they] had good practices in place” – and a “much less rosy” reality.
WTTG-FOX 5 – April 14 – Clinical Professor of Marketing Hank Boyd contributes to “Washington Commanders Stadium Decision Could be First Hurdle for Potential New Owners” … “And you want your team to be the local favorite, to have folks say I have an affiliation, I have a connection to this team, and it means something to me. And unfortunately, over the years, they were starting to separate. It’s not the way it used to be for the Washington Commanders…”
Maryland Today – April 13 – “Smith Professor, Students Take On Mortgage Climate Risk” features Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi and his project with Master of Quantitative Finance students to quantify the risk of extreme weather, including: The students created an interactive dashboard of all 13 million single-family mortgage loans originated in 2021 and merged it with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Risk Index tool for all 78,000 census tracts across 18 different climate hazards, including earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, coastal and river flooding, tornadoes and drought. Then they randomly selected 1 million mortgage loans and used a battery of different machine learning models and performance statistics to analyze the data, looking for such effects as adverse selection against Freddie Mac and fellow GSE Fannie Mae, impact on low- and moderate-income borrowers and minorities, and other key effects.
Investopedia – April 13 – “What Is Black Thursday? History, Significance, and Aftermath” extensively cites Charles E. Smith Chair Professor of Finance Albert “Pete” Kyle’s paper, “Large Bets and Stock Market Crashes.”
Technical.ly – April 13 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi comments in “In Q1, DC-Area Companies are Making a Venture Capital Comeback,” including: Rossi noted that although the economy is still “trying to find its way,” the numbers for DC are still pretty strong. He said both interest rates and cash burns are still high, and investors are on the hunt for quality companies that don’t need a lot of financial runways to get going. “They’re going to be looking for people that have good potential in a market that may become a little bit more suspect over the next six months to the one-year horizon,” Rossi told Technical.ly. He does think, though, that interest rates are approaching a peak, and with Q1’s strength, it might be time for founders to think about raising again since interest rates tend to signal where the economy is heading. “Given that, this might be a time to dip more than maybe a toe in the water and see if there aren’t some opportunities out there,” Rossi said.
Barron’s (Agence France-Presse) – April 12 – “US Banks Face Increased Scrutiny Of Q1 Results After SVB Collapse” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: While investors view the sector as having stabilized, industry watchers are expecting a muted or downcast tone as banks -- whose well-being is considered critical for the economy as a whole -- begin releasing their quarterly updates. "They're going to be setting expectations that their earnings are going to soften," [said Rossi].
AACSB Insights – April 11 – Robert H. Smith Chair in Organization Behavior and Associate Dean for Research Gilad Chen contributes to “Time for More Grant-Seeking in Business Schools?” including: Many academic leaders believe that funding agencies and business scholars are not on the same page when it comes to interests and capabilities. But whether this is true can depend on the school. At the Smith School, for example, “I think there’s actually quite strong alignment,” says Chen. “We have faculty who do research on climate finance or supply chain risk assessment. We have faculty who have been very successful at getting grants around healthcare, technology, and information systems.”
Maryland Today – April 11 – Associate Professor of Marketing Bobby Zhou comments in “As Streaming Surges Past Cable, Researcher Predicts New Changes in What You Watch,” including: The biggest factor playing into the new change lies in streaming’s personalization capabilities, [said Zhou]. “Each viewer can enjoy tailored content even if they are streaming on different devices in the same room,” he said. To Zhou, the companies best positioned for success through this shift are Netflix, TikTok and YouTube. All three are already capturing the attention of U.S. adults, and their gains will likely continue due to teenagers’ preference for social media and streaming.
Knoxville News Sentinel – April 10 – “Berkshire Hathaway launches new era of Pilot Company ownership with CEO change” extensively quotes Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass: “He will leave the business alone,” said David Kass, clinical professor of finance at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland, who studies Berkshire. Kass said it’s rare for Berkshire to bring in new management. But, when it bought a minority stake of Pilot back in 2017 with plans to own a majority in 2023, the deal hinted at a CEO shift. Haslam said his family plans to retain 20% ownership. Kass, the professor who studies Berkshire, said it’s likely the holding company’s preference “to own 100% rather than share ownership. (But) they will leave it to the discretion of the family.” Berkshire outright bought Maryville-based Clayton Homes for $1.7 billion in 2003, and the company maintains its corporate headquarters there. As for change within the company, Kass called Buffett “the preferred owner” for anyone looking to sell their business but maintain culture, stabilize employment and keep the company intact. “I would expect there to be minimal change in the culture and the atmosphere, the working conditions, compensation,” Kass said. “Whatever attributes are important to the business and the employees; I would expect to pretty much stay the same.” As for Berkshire’s future, Kass said Abel, the heir apparent to Buffett, 92, would maintain the legendary investor’s methods.
Maryland Today – April 10 – “UMD Study: To Close Gender Pay Gap, Use Analytics” features research by Margrét Bjarnadóttir, associate professor of management science and statistics.
MarketWatch – April 8 – “Gensler’s Meme-stock Reforms are Meant to Help Retail Traders. Some Investor Protection Advocates Aren’t so Sure” quotes Assistant Professor of Finance Thomas Ernst and cites his research: There are also concerns that the design of the auctions, as proposed by the SEC, could lead to worse prices for retail investors. [Ernst] authored a paper published last month with former SEC Chief Economist Chester Spatt arguing that such auctions could lead to a "winner's curse" that could lead to worse prices for retail investors. Currently, brokers route orders to market makers based in part on how cheaply they have filled orders in the past, Ernst said, while the SEC proposal would require brokers to submit each individual order to a competitive market process. "These auctions are actually less competitive than the current system," Ernst said. because market makers and exchanges would worry that they have less information about the order than their competitor, and therefore bid more conservatively. "The winner's curse is if you win the auction, it means that everyone else thought that you bid too aggressively," he said.
Neru Lending (via Finance Videos Network) – April 7 – Accounting Lecturer Samuel Handwerger gives advice on ‘Filing for a Tax Return Extension.” Previous, related segments cover crypto taxation and special advice for recent college graduates.
Expansion Solutions Magazine – April 5 – David Kirsch, associate professor of management and entrepreneurship, contributes to “EV: The Future of Mobility”: For many years, David Kirsch was contacted every December and asked, “If this was the year that EVs were finally going mainstream. It wasn’t until December 2022 “that no one called me,” said Kirsch, … “because it happened.” … “I tell people if they want to see the future of EVs to go to Norway, a small country where 80 percent of new vehicles that were sold last year were EVs,” Kirsch said. “That number is due in part to an unusual tax structure; they have high tariffs on imported internal combustion vehicles.” In Norway, he said, it’s easy to see how all of those EVs can be accommodated because a solid infrastructure is in place. “The change in mode of transportation in Norway has occurred because many seemingly minor infrastructure reforms have been implemented,” which can include making reservations for charge spots on highways and greater availability of chargers in apartment buildings. “That’s what we’ll eventually see in the U.S.” he said, while governments and industry “work out where to locate chargers and how to make sure everyone has access to them.”
TechTarget – April 5 – DEI initiatives hurt by budget cuts, hostile politics” quotes incoming Assistant Professor of Management and Organization Reuben Hurst and cites his research: Researchers worked with a tech company that was filling business development and software engineering positions. They sent invitations to qualified people to apply for openings, some of which described the company as having a flat hierarchy. Researchers also conducted a separate survey to gather more information about applicants' employer preferences. In a paper released last year, they found that women were least likely to apply for a job at a flat organization. "Women were disproportionately repelled by an employer that characterizes itself as having a flat hierarchy," Hurst said. Women perceived flat organizations as environments with less opportunity for career advancement, both in terms of promotions and pay raises, and with heavier workloads, Hurst said.
Business Insider – April 5 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass contributes to “Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Faces a Brutal Mix of Economic Headwinds. It Will Capitalize on the Chaos, 8 Experts Say”: David Kass, a Buffett blogger and finance professor at the University of Maryland: "Elevated inflation and rising interest rates are likely to depress operating earnings. But they may present investment opportunities for Berkshire if the equity markets decline substantially in the weeks ahead." … "Berkshire's cash position equaled $129 billion at the end of last year. I would like to see Buffett put more cash to work such as continuing to increase his stake in Occidental Petroleum at attractive prices and accelerating his buying back of Berkshire shares at current or lower prices." Related, Kass reports, via TalkMarkets: Berkshire Hathaway Has 30% Stake In Occidental Petroleum
Expansion Solutions Magazine – April 5 – “Headquarters Market Still Mired in Flux” quotes clinical professor Oliver Schlake: Another part of the location puzzle concerns how companies are allowing more remote work depending on how far away from the office workers live, especially since many people moved during the pandemic to where the cost of living was less when they discovered they could work efficiently at home. “There is a discount for the companies since they don’t have to [be concerned with the local costs of housing of] an employee and can sometimes pay an employee less,” [said Schlake], “since they are already saving money. An employee’s location is now part of the negotiating process.”
AACSB Insights – April 4 – Smith Dean Prabhudev Konana writes op-ed, “Everybody’s Business.” Summary: In a global, market-driven economy where social issues impact every aspect of life, business schools are more relevant than ever.
Pitchfork Economics – April 4 – Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr explains his recent study on the enforceability of noncompete agreements in a ‘Banning Noncompetes is Good – Actually’ podcast segment.
77 WABC – April 1 – Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender discusses economic policy including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s effect on inflation, via the Larry Kudlow Show. Related: Kudlow, moderating an H.R.1 Energy Roundtable with Congressional leaders, recognizes Faulkender: [Faulkender] raised the point that if you look at refined petroleum products, they affect every part of American life and every part of the American economy. It’s really quite remarkable and that’s why this bill is so important because it permeates the whole economy. If you lower the cost of that, you not only promote economic growth, you reduce inflation, you help reduce interest rates, you help reduce life’s worries for middle income folks.” (Faulkender on April 3 noted: “OPEC cutting oil production speaks to why energy independence is so critical and why I worked on H.R.1.”)
TalkMarkets – April 1 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass gives the “2023 Percentage Returns Of 5 Largest Stocks.”
March 2023
Minnesota Reformer – March 31 – Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr co-authors “Franchise Owners are Colluding to Suppress Minnesota Workers’ Wages.” Intro: In many Minnesota franchises, franchise owners within the same franchise agree not to hire from each other, keeping wages down and profits up. It is already illegal for non-franchise business owners to use this anti-competitive strategy to limit workers’ freedom. Minnesota legislators are moving to close a franchise-owners loophole…
IR Magazine – March 30 – Sean Cao, associate professor of AI, FinTech and sustainability, co-authors “From Man Versus Machine to Man Plus Machine: The Art and AI of Stock Analysis (Encouraging news for humans in the age of AI),” including: The superior performance of an AI analyst does not rule out the value of human inputs. If human and machine have different relative advantages in information processing and decision-making, then human analysts may still contribute critically to a ‘hybrid’ analyst: one who makes forecasts that combine human knowledge with the outputs/recommendations from AI models.
Research.com – March 29 – “Best Business and Management Scientists” includes 17 Smith School professors in its latest ‘best scientists’ rankings.
MarketWatch – March 29 – ‘Smith School and Foretell Reality Partner to Enhance Supply Chain Management Education Using Virtual Reality’ quotes Humberto Coronado, Master of Science in Supply Chain Management academic director: “I believe that VR technology is a game-changer in teaching supply chain concepts. The immersive experience goes beyond traditional classroom lectures and textbook readings, providing students with a higher level of knowledge and capabilities. With the help of VR technology, students will gain a unique advantage as they enter the corporate world.” (Related via Smith News: Smith Students Learn Supply Chain Management With Immersive VR.)
AACSB Insights – March 28 – “People and Places” announces MBA programs at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business in College Park are now STEM-designated (scroll down).
Plat4Mation – March 28 – “Important digital strategy lessons learned from the SVB collapse quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: Let’s start from the conclusion of Prof. Clifford Rossi (University of Maryland) in Newswise: “SVB’s stunning collapse is a reminder that despite our best efforts to regulate the banking sector following the 2008 financial crisis, banks can and will fail from time to time. In the case of SVB, an unusual confluence of events; over-concentration in a volatile sector, poor investment strategy, risk management practices and board risk oversight ultimately doomed this bank.”
Fox Business – March 27 – Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender comments regarding and ahead of upcoming congressional hearings related to recent bank failures in a “SVB Collapse Should've Been 'Extremely Clear' to Regulators” segment, including: “If you don’t think the regulators are always going to stay on top of every single source of risk out there, then the solution is to have greater capital, so it can absorb whatever risk shock may come its way. My hope is that we move away from this idea that the regulators are going to micromanage all the banks and keep the risk out of the system and have all these banks do all the same thing, I instead would like to see a return to a discussion of what capital requirements are going to ensure that they can absorb whatever risk arises.”
American Banker – March 27 – “How Interest Rate Risk Sneaked Up on Dozens of Community Banks” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: “It was risk management 101,” [said Rossi]. “They need to be all over that.” … Rossi, the University of Maryland professor and former banker, agreed that looking at one metric never tells the full story. But he said it’s an “irrefutable fact” that a decent number of banks took on far more interest rate risk than they should have.
TalkMarkets – March 26 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass gives the “2023 Percentage Returns Of 5 Largest Stocks.”
Harvard Business Review – March 23 – Dean’s Professor of Marketing David Godes co-authors “Research: The Pros and Cons of Soliciting Customer Reviews” Many companies chase customers for online reviews by sending them solicitation emails. These emails aren’t always a good idea...
The Hill – March 22 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi writes op-ed “Bank Failures are Wakeup Call to Address Widespread Bank Board Governance Deficiencies.”
Wall Street Journal – March 22 – “Bank Failures Train Spotlight on Shortcomings in Risk Management” references Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: But the board-level risk committees often don’t go beyond that single qualified member and can sometimes lack the expertise to stand up to senior management, [said Rossi]. The problems can be serious, Dr. Rossi says. His research found most of the failures of the previous financial crisis could be traced to deficiencies in risk governance. His paper proposed some policy solutions, including more scrutiny of risk management from regulators and insurers.
Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) – March 22 – publishes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi’s white paper, “Reimagining the Federal Home Loan Bank System,” that shows restructuring the FHLB can reduce systemic risk and create more competition in the U.S. mortgage secondary market.
FinanceBuzz – March 21 – Distinguished University Professor Roland Rust contributes to “Airlines are Padding Their Scheduled Flight Times by More than 10%” (Scroll down to the 'Ask our Experts').
Maryland Matters – March 21 – Sarah Wolek, senior faculty specialist and founding director of the Intentional Life Lab for the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets, is nominated for a vacancy to serve in the House of Delegates representing Bethesda-based District 16: Wolek said during the interview process that she would champion special education students and their families in Annapolis. She also wants to bring a focus to issues of mental health and well-being, pathways to home ownership, and reimagining education for a new economy to her work as a delegate.
Wall Street Journal – March 20 – Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender co-authors op-ed “Want to Prevent SVB-Style Collapses? Scrap Dodd-Frank” arguing that Dodd-Frank makes individual banks more similar and therefore the system is less resilient… Individual banks will still fail. But if the objective is to curb failure of the system, more capital and operating model diversity are important.
MBA Crystal Ball – March 20 – Assistant Dean of MBA and MS Admissions Shelbi Brookshire contributes to “How to stand out as an over-represented MBA applicant,” including: “A candidate needs to understand where their background (i.e., years of experience, test scores, undergraduate degree and GPA, etc.) falls regarding their competitiveness for their schools of choice. Once they understand and narrow down the number of schools they are considering, the best advice is to engage with the admissions team. Every school hosts virtual webinars, invites students to engage with a recruiter and often offers the opportunity to digitally meet current students. It is equally important to understand why that school is a good fit for the candidate’s post degree goals (i.e., a finance fund, an entrepreneurship center, etc.). The more a candidate invests in a specific program, the more the program understands if that candidate is a good fit for their program’s value proposition.
Baltimore Sun – March 18 – Rudolph P. ‘Rudy’ Lamone, former dean of the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business, dies” pays tribute to Rudy Lamone, also professor emeritus of management science and founder of Smith's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. Republished by The Washington Post, others.
India Education Diary – March 18 – “University Of Maryland Expert Analyses Huge Loan Loads On Cars” features insights from Charles E. Smith Chair Professor of Finance Albert "Pete" Kyle.
Baltimore Sun – March 17 – “Will the Collapse of two U.S. Banks be Followed by More?” quotes Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender: [Faulkender] blames Silicon Valley Bank’s failure on bad timing, bank mismanagement and insufficient Fed oversight. Silicon Valley Bank “had this massive deposit influx,” said Faulkender, who served as assistant secretary for economic policy in the Treasury Department from 2019 to 2021. “From a risk-management perspective, they incorrectly bought long-term bonds,” he said. “The massive increase in interest rates devalues the bond. They have to then sell the bonds to meet the needs of the depositors, and they took losses.” He added that “any bank that’s sitting on that combination is potentially also in trouble,” questioning why regulators weren’t more closely monitoring interest-rate risk at Silicon Valley Bank after raising rates.
Agence France-Presse via Barron’s – March 17 – “Interest Rate Risk: SVB's Nemesis A Well-known Foe In Banking” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: SVB's meager hedging operation "astounds me," said Clifford Rossi, a former risk management executive at Citigroup and a professor at the University of Maryland. Rossi estimates SVB's hedging program should have been twice its size. At the end of 2022, SVB reported $120 billion of these investment securities, or 55 percent of total assets, more than double the average of US banks.
Slate – March 16 – Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr co-authors op-ed “Companies Say They Need Noncompete Clauses. Here’s How WeKnow That’s Not True.” Related: Why Noncompetes Could Soon Be a Non-Thing via Maryland Today.
Lending Tree Expert Insights – March 15 – Clinical Associate Professor of Finance Elinda Kiss gives personal finance advice on credit card awards, via “Best Rewards Credit Cards in March 2023.”
Psychedelics Today (podcast) – March 15 – “Vital Psychedelic Conversations” includes Associate Professor of Logistics, Business, and Public Policy Bennet Zelner discussing a market system for the emerging psychedelic-wellness industry.
Washington Times – March 15 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass gives context to the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in “Bankers Put Focus on Woke Causes”: “The reason for the failure was clearly poor judgment, poor management and maybe lack of supervision by regulators,” said David Kass, who teaches advanced financial management and business finance at the University of Maryland’s School of Business. “The bank did not have a risk officer. That’s absurd. It was just very poor management at the bank for investment policy.” As for a connection between the bank’s woke policies and its collapse, Mr. Kass said, “I don’t see the link.” Mr. Kass said even some stock analysts at major banks were rating SVB shares as a good buy within one week of its collapse. He noted that JPMorgan and Wells Fargo rated SVB stock as “overweight” or worth buying on March 9 and Goldman Sachs rated it as “buy” on March 3. “A lot of people were asleep at the switch,” he said.
Marketplace Radio – March 14 – “Financial Meltdowns Often Spur Changes to Financial Regulation. So Where Do We Go From Here?” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: Banks themselves also need to take a closer look at their own internal regulation, including the expertise of their boards’ risk committees, [said Rossi]. “They’re like the first line of defense in knowing where the bodies are buried at these companies,” he said. “And if they’re just passively going along, you’re not going to change it, I don’t care how much regulation you heap on them.”
Related coverage featuring Rossi:
- Appraisal Buzz – Reflecting on the Collateral Risk Network (CRN) Risk Summit
- Chief Investment Officer – Federal Reserve Expected to Hike Rates Next Week, Despite Shaky Banks
- Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) – CRO Outlook: Silicon Valley Bank: A Failure in Risk Management
- Insurance Journal – Viewpoint: Silicon Valley Bank’s Failure in Risk Management
- Maryland Today – Op/ed: Silicon Valley Bank Failed to Manage Risk
- Think Advisor - SVB Had No Chief Risk Officer for Month
- Sinclair’s The National Desk (via WJLA) – What's in a bailout? Government's response to bank collapses under scrutiny
- WTOP Radio – Credit Suisse and recent bank failures in the U.S. have investors on edge (0:30-1:30)
American Banker – March 13 – “Four Days Into Banking Crisis, Questions Outnumber Answers” quote Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: Other industry watchers have crossed off the big banks. [Cliff Rossi] said he doesn’t anticipate banks such as Citigroup or U.S. Bancorp “coming out of the woodwork” and doing a deal. “There has to be some strategic value for taking on the assets of these companies,” Rossi said in an interview. “I don’t see a ready buyer that’s waiting in the wings.”
CNBC – March 13 – Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender comments in a ‘Fed to Review Silicon Valley Oversight’ segment, including: Well, you know, the cause ultimately of SVB S failure was that as your report just indicated, they had quite a lot of long-term assets that were in the form of treasury securities, of course, then funded by short term deposits. And so, it's that asset liability mismatch and a significantly rising interest rate environment that ultimately led to their insolvency, right. They didn't have sufficient equity capital to absorb the losses… Related analysis by Faulkender via Fox Business’ The Evening Edit (second clip) and Newsmax.
Wall Street Journal – March 13 – “In Retrospect, Berkshire Hathaway Cut Its Position in Regional Banks at The Right Time” quotes Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass: David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, said he could see Berkshire potentially eyeing other options as well. "Financial institutions are well within his circle of competence," Mr. Kass said.
Financial Times – March 13 – Business School Insider’s Research Round-up (scroll down) highlights research by Hui Liao, Smith Dean’s Professor in Leadership and Management: When the award goes to … someone else: When it comes to award announcements, do you feel sorry for nominees who didn’t win? Perhaps, you shouldn’t as in the long run, non-winning nominees collaborated with other employees better, according to a study in the Academy of Management Journal. Additional coverage of the study includes Forbes’ “What Happens To Unsuccessful Nominees In Employee Awards?” and Medscape’s “Losing an Award Can Affect Motivation and Performance.”
Insightful Accountant – March 13 – "Eyeing the Future of Accounting" Overviews Smith’s collaboration with the Deloitte Foundation in the Deloitte Foundation Accounting Scholars Program (DFASP) and quotes Assistant Dean of MS Programs Emanuel Zur: [Zur] calls the collaboration with the Deloitte Foundation a vital move to expand the opportunities for students who are underrepresented in accounting and tax to gain advanced knowledge extending far beyond the fundamentals in accounting. “In doing so, we are proud to enhance the Smith School's equitable environment to critically strengthen the pipeline of racially and ethnically diverse talent entering a CPA profession that is becoming more perceptive and sensitive to the changing landscape of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace.”
DC News Now – March 13 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi comments in “Banking worries? How your money is protected by federal insurance”: Clifford Rossi, a business professor at the University of Maryland and a risk management analyst said, “We’ve had 40 years of relatively low-interest rates and I think now that we are seeing rates go back up, and they’ve gone back up quickly, that some institutions are going to be caught sideways. He added, “I don’t think that this is anything that the average consumer should at all be losing sleep over.”
TalkMarkets – March 12 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass gives the “2023 Year-To-Date Percentage Returns Of 5 Largest U.S.Stocks.”
Washington Post – March 10 – “Noncompete Clauses are Everywhere, Even for Dancers and Hair Stylists” quotes Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr: A Labor Department study published in June 2022 estimated that 18 percent of Americans, or 1 in 5, are bound by noncompete agreements, but other research suggests it could be closer to 5o percent. [Starr], who co-authored the Labor Department study, says these agreements cause labor market “frictions” that can, among other things, suppress pay while imposing costs on firms wanting to hire… Nearly a dozen states restrict noncompete use based on salary thresholds, but the University of Maryland’s Starr argues that the state-by-state approach does not address a core issue: “Noncompete agreements themselves have chilling effects, and [firms and workers] have to spend a lot of money to try to get them voided,” he said.
FIND MBA – March 9 – Assistant Dean of MBA and MS Programs Shelbi Brookshire contributes to: Applying for an Online MBA: Do’s and Don’ts (In a buyer’s market, it pays to do your homework, demonstrate a keen commitment and clear career goals): When it comes to ensuring a high level of commitment, applicants should compile a list of approximately three criteria they want out of business school, [says Brookshire]. For instance, how important is it to be able to leverage robust career resources, or have access to quality faculty? Does the program have mandatory in-person residencies? How engaged is the alumni community? Brookshire says: “Do not assume all Online MBA programs are the same and understand why there are different price points. Invest time in understanding whether the school truly meets your criteria. One way to learn more is to ask for a connection to current students or recent alumni.”
USA Today – March 9 – “New lawsuit against Tiger Woods could get ugly after breakup with girlfriend: What we know” quotes Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr: “The Speak Out Act does not cover all alleged illegal activity – it only covers sexual harassment (and assault),” said [Starr] whose research aided the legislation. “By invoking this argument, she is implying something about sexual harassment (or assault) in this relationship.”
Wall Street Journal – March 8 – “Where Musk’s Twitter Gambit Stands Nearly Five Months In” quotes Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass: Mr. Musk, one of the world’s richest people, could continue making interest payments on Twitter’s debt by injecting more of his personal wealth or finding other equity investors. “To the extent the company does come up short in meeting their interest payments and he needs to raise perhaps a little more equity capital, I could see him contributing additional equity himself,” said David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland.
AACSB Insights – March 8 – New Programs (scroll down) announces Smith’s new track in climate finance to students in the Master of Finance and Master of Quantitative Finance programs. Concurrent coverage includes Financial Times' B-School Insider (subscriber-only digital access): Climate focus The University of Maryland’s Smith school will offer a new track in climate finance to their Finance and Quantitative Finance master degrees, starting in spring 2024. This will include a consulting project related to climate finance and risk management with a corporate or government sponsor.
Stuff You Should Know – March 7 – Episode “Noncompete Agreements, Come on” of the globally popular podcast includes discussion (starting at 29:05) of research on the topic by Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr. Related: Starr discusses the proposed FTC rule on noncompetes via Slingshot (starting at 1:12 in embedded video), a podcast produced by The Sling, an economic analysis and competition policy news outlet.
Maryland Today – March 6 – Charles E. Smith Chair Professor of Finance Albert (Pete) Kyle describes the rising cost of auto loans as a troubling sign for the economy, via “Four-Figure Monthly Payments for Four Wheels.”
WalletHub – March 6 – Accounting Lecturer Samuel Handwerger contributes personal finance advice in the “2023 WalletHub Tax Survey.”
TalkMarkets – March 4 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass gives the “2023 Year-To-Date Percentage Returns Of 5 Largest U.S. Stocks.”
Poets & Quants – March 1 – Smith MBA programs’ recent STEM-designation is the focus of “Another B-School Goes ‘Super STEM,’ Giving All Its MBA Programs The Designation” and includes comments from Assistant Dean and Executive Director of the Office of Career Services Neta Moye and Assistant Dean of MBA Programs Rosellina Ferraro: “The Smith School STEM-designated MBA program prepares future business leaders to make better business decisions by offering a curriculum focused on technology and data analytics techniques and complementing them with skills in leadership and strategic thinking,” Ferraro says… “Our STEM designation signals to employers that graduates from our program understand how to uncover data-derived insights to drive value creation,” [says Moye]. “This is a skill valuable to any organization whose competitive advantage depends on data analytic capabilities, organizations well beyond the technology sector including consulting, finance, retail, and consumer products.” Related coverage via The Business Monthly's “Smith MBA Programs Now STEM-Designated.”
Baltimore Sun – March 1 – “Outlier or trend? As QB Lamar Jackson seeks new deal with Ravens, guaranteed money remains a question” quotes Clinical Professor of Marketing Hank Boyd: With so few top-end quarterbacks signing lucrative deals in a given year, one contract can have a large impact on others. [Boyd], who has consulted for the NFL, said he could see other players applying pressure to receive a Watson-like contract. “Once it gets done, everyone else says, ‘I want that,’” he said. The Ravens could also trade Jackson to a team more willing to pay the contract that he wants. An NFL quarterback is perhaps the most important position in American professional sports and there would be many suitors for Jackson — just as there were for Watson last year. Four quarterbacks are expected to be drafted in the first round in April, and there are few enticing free agents for teams that miss out on a top prospect. “I think most teams are on the hunt for a really good quarterback,” Boyd said.
February 2023
Fox Business – Feb. 28 – Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender discusses "Making the Trump Tax Cuts Permanent" in a Kudlow segment.
Consultancy.uk – Feb. 28 – “The crypto Industry is Still Reeling From the Effects of FTX” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: “The stunning collapse of FTX was an age-old story of financial mismanagement, excessive risk-taking and insufficient regulation and risk management.”
Finance Videos Network – Feb. 27 – Accounting Lecturer Samuel Handwerger gives ‘Tax-filing Advice for Recent Graduates.’ (Handwerger advises TerpTax, serving low-to-middle income tax filers in the UMD and College Park community and taking appointments through April 7, 2023.)
BusinessBecause – Feb. 27– “What Are The Best Online MBAs In Business Analytics?” highlights Smith’s program among those in the recent U.S. News & World Report ranking for this category.
Fox Business – Feb. 27 – Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender discusses the U.S. economy and inflation, via The Evening Edit (starting at 2:00), including: “If you look at price increases net of wages, American people are worse off by 3.6 percent. Yes, wages have gone up, but nowhere near to keep up with inflation that has arisen from the Administration’s policies. When you impose this amount of spending when you run these kinds of massive deficits on the American economy, you are going to see this kind of inflation.”
TalkMarkets – Feb. 26 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass shares “6 Quotes from Warren Buffett’s Letter To Shareholders And Berkshire Annual Report” and “10 Highlights Of Berkshire Hathaway’s 2022 Annual Report And Warren Buffett’s Letter To Shareholders.” (Feb. 25).
LexBlog – Feb. 24 – Assistant Professor of Finance Bruno Pellegrino co-authors a summary of recent research in “The Great Startup Sellout and the Rise of Oligopoly,” including: Startup acquisitions by incumbent firms have been on the rise for the last few years. These acquisitions often allow larger companies to acquire new technologies or talent, while startups gain access to resources and a wider customer base. … In a new paper, we shed new light on this debate by documenting how venture capital exits have shifted from IPOs to acquisitions by incumbents and show evidence of how this might have affected competition in the United States.
Harper’s Bazaar – Feb. 24 – “Everything You Need to Know about Swedish Death Cleaning” quotes Assistant Dean of MBA Programs Rosellina Ferraro from a previous NBC News story: According to NBC, Swedish death cleaning fits into the psychology minimalism and can essentially make you happier. It stems from this idea that happiness doesn’t come from stuff or material goods but rather connection and relationships. Once you go through a process of possession slimming, you’ll ultimately identify what’s truly important and pleasureful to your life. [Ferraro] told the outlet of the practise: “If you pare down, the argument is that you can better focus on the really important things in life.” … “The idea of de-cluttering and streamlining our lives resonates because it may feel like it pushes back against this crazy chaotic world we live in.”
CNBC – Feb. 24 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass contributes to “Warren Buffett’s Must-read Annual Letter Arrives Saturday. Here’s What to Expect From the Investing Legend”: “We have a roughly 15-year period of abnormally and historically low interest rates. The short-term rates we have now are more normal,” said David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “Interest rates are the main determinant of equity prices, to quote Buffett, so I think I’m looking for and expecting a discussion on interest rates.” … “One comment Buffett may make in his letter is that it’s not so painful to be sitting in cash. There is an alternative now and it’s called Treasury bills, or short-term Treasuries,” Kass said. The rising-rate environment could also benefit Buffett’s famous deal-making. Not only due to falling asset prices, but because he also has ample liquidity to tap into, whereas his competitors such as private equity firms have to borrow to make deals. “Private equity and others who are thinking of making acquisitions would have to go into the market to borrow [at] higher interest rates. This would confer a competitive advantage back to Berkshire,” Kass said.
Baltimore Banner – Feb. 24 – Dean’s Professor of Entrepreneurship Brent Goldfarb explains the function of business improvement districts in “Creating a more attractive and safer York Road with a business improvement district”: Such business districts are just another way for the city to supply services, [said Goldfarb]. And just like every other policy decision, there are “winners and losers.” The areas under business improvement districts tend to look more attractive, Goldfarb said, and businesses usually thrive and property values increase. On the other hand, these districts can also price people out with rent increases. The annual fees for the district could take a toll on businesses that were “barely making it” or if the clientele changes. “It’s just a question of how deliberate the City Council is in addressing that.”
Maryland Today – Feb. 24 – “Smith School to Offer Online Master of Science in Management Studies” highlights the new OMiM program that provides students with a broad set of business management knowledge to complement their passions, including how to lead effective teams, market products and make smart business decisions based on data.
Barron’s – Feb. 24 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass addresses “T-bills vs. Equities” in a Letter-to-the-Editor, including: Randall W. Forsyth cites several analysts who argue that Treasury bills currently yielding 5% are providing strong competition for equities (“Can the Stock Market Keep Rallying? Hopes Are Fading,”) Up & Down Wall Street, Feb. 17). But to determine the appropriate level of equities, one should also consider long-term interest rates. From 1960 to 2007, the 10-year Treasury averaged 6.84%. It is currently at 3.82%. Similarly, over the past 45 years, the 30-year Treasury has averaged 6.30%. It is currently at 3.87%. At a November 2016 meeting with University of Maryland students, Warren Buffett said, “Stocks are cheap if long-term rates [30-year Treasury] are at 4%, four or five years from now.” At that time, the 30-year Treasury was at 2.8%. Since equities are considered long-term investments, and most corporations borrow primarily long term to match the time horizon of their projects, today’s historically low long-term interest rates should not be ignored in equity valuations. Discounted-cash-flow valuations are calculated by discounting future cash flows by the weighted average cost of capital. This calculation would incorporate a company’s long-term cost of debt..
MIT Sloan Management Review – Feb. 22 – Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr gives an extended interview in “What an FTC Noncompete Ban Could Mean for Workers and Businesses” (Full-length version also via Tribune Content Agency). Intro: In January, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission proposed a ban on noncompete clauses in employment contracts. In addition to barring new noncompete agreements with employees and independent contractors, the rule would require employers to rescind existing ones. To understand what a federal ban could mean for workers and businesses, why it’s facing opposition, and how employers can prepare, we spoke with [Starr], who studies noncompetes at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Related: Starr’s research is referenced in the Indianapolis Star’s “Eyeing Health Care Costs, Indiana Lawmakers Want to Ban Doctor Noncompetes (Feb. 22).
Knowledge at Wharton – Feb. 21 – “How ‘Strategic Silence’ Helps Employees” features research co-authored by Dean’s Professor of Management Subra Tangirala, including: Conducting a qualitative study and two field studies, the professors found that employees who use strategic silence most effectively consider three factors in deciding when and how to speak up: issue relevance, issue readiness, and target responsiveness. First, they determine whether speaking up would align with the goals of the recipient or the current situation (i.e., relevance). Second, they determine whether they are ready to talk or need to hold off until they collect more data, find a solution, or think through some other aspect of the problem or idea (i.e., readiness). Third, they wait until the recipient — usually a manager — is in the right cognitive (not too busy) or emotional state (not in a bad mood) to hear the message (i.e., responsiveness).
Inside Mortgage Finance – Feb. 21 – “Ohio Environmental Mishap Poses Housing Questions” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: Typically, in the event of a natural disaster, such as a flood or a hurricane, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issue press releases alerting borrowers and servicers to verify property damage and outlining the process for providing relief to those affected. In the case in East Palestine, because it’s an isolated incident and it hasn’t been declared a disaster by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, “it’s more of a wait-and-see situation,” Rossi said. Mortgage servicers could seek guidance from the GSEs, FHA and VA on how and when to offer forbearance and loan-modification programs to borrowers financially impacted by the train derailment and evacuation, Rossi said. Also, it can get trickier, Rossi said, if a borrower decides to not return to his home due to concern regarding health even after state officials have given an all-clear. “The issue in this case is if there’s no direct acknowledgment by a governmental agency that this is a bona fide existing health issue,” then there likely won’t be protections for borrowers who decide to walk away from their mortgage, he explained. “The protocols have to be rooted in some scientific basis,” Rossi added.
WalletHub – Feb. 20 – Clinical Professor of Marketing Hank Boyd gives insights on “Credit Cards for Groceries,” via “Ask the Experts.”
GARP (Global Association of Risk Professionals) – Feb. 17 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi’s latest CRO Outlook column addresses “The Risk Appetite Dilemma: How to Overcome Obstacles and Enhance Risk-Adjusted Return,” including: Risk appetite statements can yield many benefits, but only when they adhere to established risk-tolerance levels and make use of proper metrics that consider threats across every profit center.
Maryland Today – Feb. 16 – “$30M in Grand Challenges Grants Awarded” introduces an “unprecedented UMD grants program” to support study into “society’s most pressing problems including pandemics, racism, threats to democracy and literacy deficits,” and including Smith researchers Vojislav “Max” Maksimovic, Louiqa Raschid, Debra Shapiro and Liu Yang, whose projects are featured in Smith Faculty Leading, Collaborating in UMD Grand Challenges Projects.
CNBC – Feb. 15 – “Watch Charlie Munger speak at the Daily Journal Annual Meeting” includes Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger answering a question on stock buybacks from Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass, via moderator Becky Quick at 1:00:40 in the embedded video. The exchange (condensed and edited for clarity) includes: Kass via Quick: President Biden has proposed increasing the tax on stock buybacks from its current level of one percent to a new higher level of four percent. What are your views on taxing stock buybacks? Munger: I’m strongly opposed… A good culture has a lot of people that are good fiduciaries, and it’s like stealing to do something dumb with the corporate money, when you get more value for your shareholders by buying back your own stock… I like encouraging morality, decency, and honor and so forth in dealing with the people you’re the fiduciary for… I agree with our President on some things, but this is not one of them.
MetaNews – Feb. 15 – “Chat Fishing: How Artificial Intelligence Could Affect Online Dating” quotes Associate Professor of Information Systems Jui Ramaprasad: [Ramaprasad] observes, platforms have been using AI to improve user experience for some time. Ramaprasad has recently published research into a feature that reveals ‘who likes you’ (WLY) on dating apps. So it pays to listen when she says bots on dating apps could be a cause for concern. She explains: “Pushing the recommendation-algorithm path further, is using AI for the steps after an initial match on a dating site or a real estate listing site, i.e., chat-bots ‘making the first move’? This seems scary.”
Maryland Today – Feb. 13 – Marketing professors Hank Boyd and Judy Frels discuss commercials that flourished and flopped in “Super Bowl Ads 2023: Overindulging on Food, Drink and Celebs.”
Financial Times – Feb. 13 – “MBA Ranking 2023: Business School Profiles” describes Smith’s climb to 57th globally and No. 31 among US programs: The Robert H Smith School of Business in the US is one of two equal highest climbers, up 28 places to 57th. The school improved its performance in several categories including its careers service, ranked 42. One graduate commended the “amazing” careers support: “I could never have gotten myself that many interviews and they even helped me negotiate my offers to get me an even higher salary.”
Fox Business – Feb. 13 – In an Evening Edit segment, Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender comments on Blackrock CEO Larry Fink’s advocacy for government action for $50 trillion of investment toward net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, including: “You’ve got the White House and a number of regulatory agencies imposing this ‘woke capitalism-ESG’ approach sacrificing long-term for America’s population in order to fund these green initiatives. So, we’re putting national security at risk and energy security at risk and we’re putting retirement security at risk.”
Maryland Today – Feb. 13 – Associate Dean for Culture and Community and Clinical Professor of Information Systems Zeinab Karake contributes to “How to Turn Your Office Chair Into an Opportunity for Exercise.”
The Diamondback – Feb. 13 – “Some Companies in Maryland Could Transition to a Four-day Workweek Under New State Bill” quotes Associate Dean for Research Gilad Chen: [Chen], who conducts research on organizational effectiveness and employee motivation, said the four-day workweek is only one part of an ongoing conversation about balancing employee productivity and well-being. Working from home or telecommuting could be other possible solutions with even better environmental benefits, Chen explained.
TalkMarkets – Feb. 11 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass gives the “2023 YTD Percentage Returns Of 5 Largest U.S. Stocks.”
Wall Street Journal – Feb. 10 – “U.S. Government Borrowing Costs Rise as Debt Ceiling Fuels Partisan Clash” quotes Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender: But the Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate much faster than the CBO had expected, pushing the key rate to between 4.5% and 4.75% at its most recent meeting, a level last reached in 2007. The Fed’s actions has in turn pushed up yields on Treasurys, which were at roughly 3.6% on the benchmark 10-year note this week, an increase from around 2% a year ago. Those increases in yield gradually filter into U.S. interest costs as debts roll over. “I could not say definitively where the line was” for too much borrowing, said Michael Faulkender, a Treasury official during the Trump administration. “Finding out where the limit is, is catastrophic because it means we’ve had a bond market failure. That’s a depression.”
Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) – Feb. 10 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi is the primary source for “What Do CROs Look for in a Risk Manager?” including: For entry-level positions, Rossi believes a good CRO doesn’t micromanage the process, instead offering guidance to underlings and trusting them to make good hiring decisions. When he held the top risk management post, he says his staff would occasionally ask for his help in evaluating young candidates to determine their communications or problem-solving skills. “When hiring junior risk managers, I sometimes did a 30-minute interview with promising candidates and tried to sell them on working for us,” Rossi recalls.
Katie Couric Media – Feb. 10 – “A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How Super Bowl Commercials Are Really Made” quotes Professor of Marketing Amna Kirmani, including: But the research continues to show that for emerging businesses like the handful of cryptocurrency companies that bought spots during last year’s game and even for big, legacy brands like Anheuser Busch, Frito-Lay, and Coca-Cola “the return on investment is very high,” she says. A splashy commercial creates brand awareness and signals to consumers that these companies are thriving with money to burn. “For some companies, they blow their entire year’s advertising budget on this because they can make such a splash,” Kirmani says.
Bloomberg – Feb. 9 – “Brazil’s Richest Man Loses Billions as His M&A Machine Breaks Down” quotes Clinical Professor of Management and Organization Paulo Prochno: [Prochno] says there’s an additional aggravating factor in the 3G playbook: Executives are often given contracts loaded with outsize bonuses for hitting profit targets. “That really gives strong incentives for people to not be ethical,” says Prochno, a Brazilian native who’s followed Lemann’s overseas expansion for years. Like Gulbrandsen, he says he doubts that Lemann and his partners, Marcel Telles and Carlos Sicupira, knew about the accounting irregularities, but says that matters only to a degree. They created “a system that leads to this behavior,” Prochno says.
The Atlantic – Feb. 9 – Clinical Professor of Marketing Hank Boyd comments in “The Tech Giants Want What the NFL Has”: Buying game rights ratchets up the companies’ platform to sell us things, in part because the very thing we’re watching on is something they’re selling us. Google could use the very existence of Sunday Ticket to plug YouTube TV subscriptions: After all, everyone knows Google, but not everyone might know YouTube TV. “Now, believe me, they’re gonna know YouTube TV, and they’re gonna be searching for it because of that access to the Sunday Ticket,” Hank Boyd, a marketing professor at the University of Maryland’s business school who has previously consulted with both the NFL and companies that work with it, told me. And while Google can’t replace national commercials during games that broadcast networks still produce, it will have what would normally be local advertising slots to sell, which it can use to boost all kinds of Google products.
Forbes – Feb. 7 – “New USCIS Data Show H-1B Denial Rates Remain Low” cites research co-authored by Hank Lucas, Robert H. Smith Professor of Information Systems Emeritus: …[Lucas] examined the skills and compensation of over 50,000 information technology (IT) professionals, and found, "[C]ontrary to popular belief, non-U.S. citizen IT professionals are not paid less compared to American IT professionals.”
InvestorPlace via Business Insider – Feb. 7 – “Should You Invest In Reg A+ Startups?” quotes Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship Brent Goldfarb: But successfully marketing to brand enthusiasts is one thing, and making good on the promises of a return on investment is another. [Goldfarb] has his own reservations about the sorts of companies found on equity crowdfunding sites: “Crowdfunded companies are very high risk, and, as is the case with most entrepreneurial ventures, are more likely than not to fail. Hence, as such, companies in aggregate should only comprise a small percentage of their investments. This thinking sits behind the SEC’s crowdfunding rules, as well as the rules that determine which investors qualify as accredited. In general, investors who invest broadly in the public markets by buying index-based securities will outperform investors who invest in startups, including crowdfunded startups. Admittedly, investing in startups on crowdfunding platforms or otherwise is more fun.”
Financial Times – Feb. 6 - Are CEOs with MBAs good for business?” reviews a working paper co-authored by Assistant Professor of Finance Alex X. He.
Phys.org – Feb 6 – “Retailers can Gain from Reducing Food Waste, Study Finds” overviews research by research published in the Journal of Sustainable Marketing by marketing professors Jie Zhang and Michel Wedel.
Fairly Competing (podcast) – Feb. 6 – “Guest Starr Discusses The Research Behind the FTC’s Proposed Noncompete” Ban” features Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr. Segment intro: The FTC’s proposed ban on noncompete agreements (and other “de facto” noncompetes) relies in large part on the research of [Starr]— one of the leading scholars in the field. Join John, Ben, and Russell as they talk with Professor Starr about the strengths and weaknesses of his research…
Food Industry Today – Feb. 6 – “Retailers Can Gain From Reducing Food Waste” covers research in the Journal of Sustainable Marketing by marketing professors Michel Wedel and Jie Zhang, including: Even as higher food prices make Americans think twice about what goes in the grocery cart, nearly 40% of food in the United States is wasted—mostly by shoppers who don’t eat what they bought and by retailers who fail to sell their goods. Large retailers are the main link between farmers, producers, packaged food manufacturers and consumers, so they can play a big role in reducing waste. And they stand to benefit from doing that. ... Also published by Maryland Today.
The Observer – Feb. 6 – Clinical Professor of Marketing Hank Boyd comments in “So Mickey Mouse Is About to Enter the Public Domain. Can Anyone Actually Make Money Off Him?”: “People mockingly refer to it as the Mickey Mouse protection act,” says Hank Boyd, a lawyer and clinical professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business. “But even Disney I think realizes you can only go to the well so many times.” … Then there is also old-fashioned market power. “You have an image of Steamboat Willie, and you decide to do something really far afield,” says Boyd. “Let’s say there’s a small market out there that says it’s pretty cool.” If it gets big enough, Disney can come in and compete. Who’s more likely to win?”
The Spokesman-Review – Feb. 5 – "Airlines’ Many Challenges Leaving Flyers Feeling ‘Worse and Worse’" quotes Distinguished University Professor Roland Rust: “The pandemic threw everything into reverse and then threw everything into accelerating forward again, and there was no way the system could manage that,” said Roland Rust, a professor who studies consumer service in air travel and other industries at the University of Maryland. … Rust said that the “just in time” nature of the system – with flights and connections closely interlocked – means that any single airline’s delay or cancellation can ripple through the entire country. ... For Rust, it’s a symptom of a system in which consumer service has had just one trajectory: “Worse and worse.”
MDPI Open Access Journals – Feb. 5 – “Fanbois and Fanbots: Tesla’s Entrepreneurial Narratives and Corporate Computational Propaganda on Social Media” by Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship David Kirsch and Mohsen Chowdhury is published by World Electric Vehicle Journal and accessible via MDPI, a Switzerland-based academic open access publisher. The study was previously summarized here.
TalkMarkets – Feb. 5 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass gives “The Rotation from Value Stocks (2022) Into Growth Stocks (2023 YTD).”
77 WABC – Feb. 4 – Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender discusses the January jobs report on the Larry Kudlow Show, including: “Normally in January you lose about three million jobs because of the temporary hiring that takes place during the holiday season. So instead of three million layoffs, there were only two-and-a-half million layoffs, so it looks as though we gained over a half-million jobs. My hypothesis about the jobs market, recently, is that we're suffering from a labor shortage, so a lot of the historical ways of thinking about jobs reports perhaps are not accurate.” … Faulkender co-authors a Feb. 3 op-ed in the Indianapolis Star, “Protect Indiana's Pension Plans by Keeping 'Woke' Politics Out;" discusses the U.S. economy, via Fox Business’ The Evening Edit; and co-authors "The Federal Government Is Dining Out On Your Dime" at the Daily Caller.
American Banker – Feb. 3 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi co-authors, with Robert Brammer and Matthew Lightfoot, “Fed's Climate Scenario Pilot is a Waste of Time and Resources,” including: Modeling the physics of climate change has improved significantly in the past decade. However, the socioeconomic models underpinning bank climate scenarios at best provide regulators with a false sense of security that climate scenario results are credible and at worst may lead to suboptimal policy and investment decisions over time. We present a case for a robust simulation-based approach that regulators and large banks should adopt that would significantly improve results.
Maryland Today – Feb. 3 – “A UMD Podcast-Palooza” highlights Future of Humanity hosted by Anand Anandalingam, Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Management Science: Can we cultivate lab-grown meat that’s both climate-friendly and humane? Will AI enhance, rather than overshadow, human endeavors? Anandalingam trains his lens on these and other potentially life-changing technologies of the next 20 to 50 years.
Finance Videos Network – Feb. 2 – Accounting Lecturer Samuel Handwerger discusses “Crypto Taxation.” … In a separate segment, Dean’s Professor Emeritus of Leadership and Motivation Edwin Locke discusses his books "A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance," “The Selfish Path to Romance” and "The Illusion of Determinism: Why Free Will is Real and Causal."
Washington Business Journal – Feb. 1 – ‘Deloitte Foundation, Smith Collaborate on Scholarships for Master’s of Accounting Students’ highlights Smith’s new Deloitte Foundation Accounting Scholars Program “supporting a racially and ethnically diverse student population and to strengthen the pipeline of diverse talent entering the CPA profession.” … Related coverage via Poets & Quants and The Business Monthly.
January 2023
MIT Sloan Management Review – Jan. 31 – ‘Salary Transparency Laws [will] Change Employee Compensation?’ quotes Rajshree Agarwal, Rudolph Lamone Chair of Strategy and Entrepreneurship: “This will occur not only because of the law but also because of competitive dynamics among firms in human capital/talent markets." (Viewable scrolling down and clicking top, left-corner square.)
Associated Press – Jan. 31 – “Elon Musk’s Tesla Tweet Trial Delves into Investor Damages” quotes finance professor Steve Heston as a an expert witness in the class-action lawsuit on behalf of Tesla shareholders: Heston, reviewed an even denser report analyzing the impact of Musk's tweets on more than 2,000 types of Tesla stock options, drawing largely upon a formula known as the Black-Scholes model widely used by companies to value executive compensation packages. When pressed by a Musk lawyer about the reliability of his model, Heston acknowledged: “All models deviate from reality, which is why they are models.” … Related coverage quoting Heston via BNN Bloomberg.
Bloomberg Law – Jan. 31 – “FTC Noncompete Proposal Breathes New Life Into Lawmaker Efforts” quotes Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr: Lawmakers, activists, and academics opposed to noncompetes in the workplace have warned for years of the paralyzing effects of such agreements, which they say hamper social mobility. Workers are passionate about the issue even as it has been largely off of Congress’s radar, [according to Starr]. “Those workers on the back end realize they can’t take another job in their industry for two years or they have to move their whole family. It’s very jarring for workers who realize that they can be held to these restrictions,” [said Starr]. “It evokes very, very strong feelings among workers about fairness, about their ability to provide for themselves.”
Technicall.ly – Jan. 30 – Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi comments in “How should founders be preparing for a recession?” [Rossi explains a recession] as follows: The unofficial definition is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Per this definition, we actually experienced one last year. But whether or not we’re officially in a recession is up to folks at the National Bureau of Economic Research, who say they also explore factors like unemployment — meaning that we can experience a recession’s effects without technically being in one. Rossi currently predicts a mid-2023 recession but anticipates nothing near the tumult of 2008. “We’re certainly seeing numbers that, on days, seem like they’re relatively strong; the economy still seems to be hanging in there pretty well,” Rossi told Technical.ly. “But at the same time, there are these warning signs, particularly with rates as elevated as they have been relative to where they were in the past, that seem to suggest that we could be in for a bumpy ride.”
Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance – Jan. 30 – Lemma Senbet, William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance, co-authors as part The Financial Economists Roundtable, “The Controversy Over Proxy Voting: The Role of Asset Managers and Proxy Advisors,” as an analysis, with policy recommendations on “the future of shareholder rights and corporate governance with a focus on the role played by large asset managers and proxy advisors.”
FIND MBA – Jan. 30 – Assistant Dean of MBA & MS Admissions Shelbi Brookshire comments in “Why an MBA is a ‘Safe Harbor’ in a Recession”: [Brookshire] spells out the reasons for MBA applicants to be optimistic; the factors leading to the current fall in competition. “A significant portion of the US population are aging out of pursuing an MBA with fewer than 20 percent in the traditional age range,” she says. “In addition, the economic and workforce volatility of the pandemic has made prospective students more risk averse and have less appetite for incurring large amounts of debt,” she adds, particularly with interest rates increasing from historic lows. ... “There are also a number of substitutes ranging from industry specific certificates to specialty master’s programs that employers are recognizing as value-adds when considering a new employee,” Brookshire says, suggesting there are more ways to upgrade credentials.
CGTN America – Jan. 30 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass discusses factors behind Southwest Airlines’ Q4 losses and the economic state of the airline industry more broadly in “Southwest Reports Q4 Net Loss of $220M.”
Focus on This (podcast) – Jan. 30 – 'Avoid Repeating Mistakes' includes Clinical Professor of Management and Assistant Dean Nicole Coomber discussing data-driven strategies for increasing personal productivity (Starting 15:08 in embedded video).
Los Angeles Times – Jan. 26 – “Column: The FTC is Pushing New Rights for Workers. Big Business is Pitching a Fit, of Course” cites research by Associated Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr: Academic studies cited by the FTC, the White House and the Treasury Department have found that as many as 38% of workers have labored under such a clause at some point in their working life. Only 1 in 10 workers negotiated over their noncompete restrictions, and about one-third were presented with the clause “after having already accepted their job offer,” researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland found. On average, noncompete clauses reduce hourly wages by anywhere from 2% to 21%. A 2008 Oregon ban on noncompete clauses for hourly workers in Oregon, according to a study by Michael Lipsitz of the FTC and Evan Starr of the University of Maryland, “improved average occupational status in Oregon, raised job-to-job mobility, and increased the proportion of salaried workers without affecting hours worked.” ... Related: The National Law Review’s “Potential Impact of the FTC’s Proposed Rule to Ban Noncompetes Nationwide ” cites Starr's research, and the Seattle Times' “Seattle-areaMan Says NoncompeteAgreements Cost Him a New Job” (Jan. 30) quotes Starr: “There’s been a push from policy policymakers, state level and federal, to go after attempts to limit labor mobility and hold wages down,” says Evan Starr, a University of Maryland economist who studies the issue.
FIND MBA – Jan. 26 – Director of Graduate Career Coaching Dori Jamison comments in “Ready to Switch Careers? How an Online MBA Can Help” (Summary: Online students are keen to explore wider opportunities, prompting business schools to ramp up career services.) Most business schools are ramping up the career support they offer to Online MBA candidates, as they switch roles more often. “There are more resources available for these programs around career coaching,” [says Jamison]. There are big benefits associated with career transitions. “Changing careers provides the student with an opportunity to find their passion and do what they love,” says Jamison. “They typically have previous experience where they are learning more and more about what they want out of their career and the MBA is a great vehicle to leverage their previous experience to do something they are excited about. Changing careers can also provide more growth potential.” … Like Imperial College, the Smith School is seeing a rise in Online MBA students seeking coaching support to help them transition into new careers. “We have seen appointment requests for topics like ‘career targeting’ triple in the last three years,” Jamison says. What has led to this change in employment outcomes? “It can be said that there is less risk,” she continues. “With more competition and options in the MBA space, online degrees are becoming more popular and have less stigma around quality. The online environment is also becoming a more acceptable platform for networking and building relationships, so students are finding they may not be missing as much compared to a traditional degree,” adds Jamison.
US News & World Report – Jan. 25 – “8 Best Warren Buffett Stocks to Buy in 2023” quotes Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass: Oil and gas giant Chevron is another large Berkshire holding that investors should consider, says University of Maryland finance professor David Kass. It is "an extremely well-managed international oil company," he says. … Another oil and gas producer in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio that Kass likes is Occidental Petroleum. It is also very well managed, he says. Plus, Berkshire may make a friendly acquisition of the company at a premium of at least 25% over its current market price, he adds. … If the Fed raises its key interest rate to the 5%-to-5.25% target range this year as the central bank projected in December, consumer staples such as Coca-Cola should perform relatively well and be less sensitive to interest rate hikes than the industrial and financial stocks in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio, Kass says. He also points out that KO should only experience a minimal decline in sales if a recession hits because of its status as a consumer staples stock. … Related: Kass gives the 2023 Year-To-Date Percentage Returns Of 5 Largest U.S. Stocks By Market Capitalization (for Jan. 29) via TalkMarkets.
Expansion Solutions Magazine – Jan. 25 – Center for Social Value Creation Director Nima Farchshi comments extensively in separate pieces, “Going Green: The Only Way to Grow” and “Plastics: Projections Rising with Demand for Biodegradable,” including: As far as changing perceptions about the need to recycle, “Many ESG funds have already been successful, though several southern states, such as Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana and others, are in the process of rejecting it,” said Farshchi. He noted, however, that ESG funds “performed well during the pandemic.” ... Farshchi added to that observation and also suggested following the lead of the European Union, which is setting requirements for plastic waste in an effort to reduce the amount by around 20 percent by 2030; and total greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030 from where they stood in 1990. Apparently, those efforts in the EU have been noticed in Washington. “Also, the Biden administration is pushing for a House Resolution for the Environmental Protection Agency to increase regulations on plastic since the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference a few weeks ago,” he said, noting the next conference is set for Nov. 30, 2023, when world leaders will again discuss shared metrics to reach goals.
Expansion Solutions Magazine – Jan. 25 – Dean’s Professor of Operations Management Wedad Elmaghraby comments in “Data Center Sector to Expand Exponentially” including: Businesses today are “devouring data in their effort to create positive monetary outcomes that often require big data capabilities. That’s why we continue to see the rise in the number of data centers,” said Elmaghraby. “More and more of what businesses do requires the services of data centers, whether it’s managing emails, human resources or capturing and processing big data that is critical to their business’ competitive advantage.” To do that successfully, they need to process a large number of transactions and data in a timely manner, she said. “Quick answers, quick analysis and quick touchpoints. Nobody wants to send an email and have it get to their customer two hours later.”
Maryland Today – Jan. 25 – “Pitch Dingman Competition 2023Expands to USM Schools” means Smith’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship “has introduced a fourth track to its signature competition, as a trial run for a larger competition in the future. This pilot will include students from nearby schools with similar pitch competitions: Bowie State University, the University of Baltimore and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.”
Fast Company – Jan. 24 – “IPOs Decline as Large CompaniesGobble up More Startups. That’s Bad for Innovation” references and quotes from research by Assistant Professor of Finance Bruno Pellegrino, including: But a new paper … shows that despite a relatively recent uptick in IPO activity, what we’re witnessing is actually a longer shift: Fewer companies are going public, more are being acquired, and that’s likely part of a big-picture strategy by established companies to insulate themselves from would-be competitors. The study’s authors—economist Florian Ederer from Yale School of Management and assistant professor Bruno Pellegrino from University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business—conclude that the trend is “accompanied by” an increase in the opportunity costs of going public, and the result is an increase in oligopoly power. “Dominant companies that are disproportionately active in the corporate control market for startups have become more insulated from the pressures of product market competition over the same period,” the study reads. “These facts are consistent with the hypothesis that startup acquisitions have contributed to rising oligopoly power.”
Business News Daily – Jan. 23 “Simplicity Is Key to Effective Online Advertising” overviews eye-tracking research in the Journal of Marketing Research co-authored by Distinguished University Professor Michel Wedel.
TalkMarkets – Jan. 21 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass gives the “2023 Year-To-Date Percentage Returns Of 5 Largest U.S. Stocks.”
790 KABC (Los Angeles) – Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship David Kirsch discusses the history of the electric vehicle and its implications on the environment moving forward, in “A Climate Change with Matt Matern.”
USA Today – Jan. 19 - “How Noncompete Agreements Harm Women and People of Color: 'Consequences can be Devastating’” quotes Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr: “There are now several studies which suggest that noncompete agreements more strongly affect women and people of color.”
Additional, same-week coverage quoting Evan Starr and-or referencing his research on noncompete agreements:
- Bloomberg via SFGate - “Noncompete Ban Holds Out Promise of Better Pay Without Inflation”: That spate of high-profile layoffs has added to concern about the risk of a U.S. recession, even though labor markets remain broadly strong. In that event, widespread noncompete agreements could hamper the economy’s ability to bounce back, [according to Starr]: “Noncompetes would prevent workers from finding a job in their industry” when they get laid off, he says, “and as a result, drag out a recovery.”
- Financial Times - “In labour markets, the devil is Often in the Detail” (Non-compete clauses buried in contracts stack the deck against workers): The story starts in the US, where economists and law professors such as Evan Starr and Orly Lobel have mapped out the extent to which employment clauses traditionally associated with top executives have actually spread across the workforce... Non-disclosure agreements; non-disparagement clauses; non-compete clauses — many American workers are now tangled in a thicket of the stuff. One study by Starr found that 70 percent of employees with unenforceable non-competes mistakenly believed they were enforceable.
- The Nation – “The FTC’s New Rule Against Noncompetes Could Raise Wages by $300 Billion”: The FTC has estimated that its proposed ban, if enacted, will raise wages by nearly $300 billion a year. [Starr], who has studied noncompetes, argues that this is a low estimate, because when firms can no longer game a patchwork of state laws to keep using them, the impact may be even larger than past studies have found.
- Wall Street Journal video - “Why the FTC Says Noncompete Clauses Are Hurting the Economy.”
Fox Business – Jan. 19 – Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender joins the Kudlow program for a live in-studio panel discussion on “Restoring Prosperity in America."
DC News Now – Jan. 19 - Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass explains the economics of “Consumers to Start Paying for COVID Shots, Feds Poised to End Free Vaccine Program.” … Kass, via Al-Araby TV, discusses economic implications of more than 20,000 Americans losing their jobs in the technology sector during the first week of this year, representing 20% of those who lost their jobs in this sector during the entire year 2022. The segment (in Arabic) also is accessible via Facebook and a full-length video download.
TalkMarkets – Jan. 14 – Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass gives the “2023 Year-To-Date Percentage Returns Of 5Largest U.S. Stocks By Market Capitalization”
Fox Business – Jan. 13 – Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender discusses, on Kudlow, the potential for global recession in 2023 including: “The first half of this year is going to be into a recession, because of the activity the Fed has engaged in. You see the pullback in activity around home purchases and households starting to run through some of the money they accumulated during the pandemic. The savings rate is at one of lowest levels we’ve seen in a long time. The consumer sentiment number is still way down. So, indications suggest that at some point consumers are going to run out of money or certainly curtail the amount they have, and that’s going to lead to a mild recession in the beginning of this year.”
GARP – Jan. 13 – In his latest CRO Outlook column published by the Global Association of Risk Professionals Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi writes “Reducing Operational Risk with Systems Engineering.” Summary: What are the underlying problems behind the operational failures that have plagued large banks? Should they consider a systems engineering approach to either supplement or replace the flawed project management processes that are currently in place?
Lipstick Alley – Jan. 13 – The women’s interest blog focused on social issues, quotes Associate Professor of Management and Organization Trevor Foulk among other academic experts in (Tips on being Resilient & Cultivating Spaces To Build Yourself Back Up. Having hobbies, passions, and a positive mindset about the Future): Trevor Foulk, who researches organizational behavior at the University of Maryland, told the Washington Post that rudeness is sort of like the common cold. It’s easy to catch and pass on to others. “When it comes to incivility, there’s often a snowballing effect. The more you see rudeness, the more likely you are to perceive it from others and the more likely you are to be rude yourself to others,” he said.
Technical.ly – Jan. 12 – “Q4 was the DC Area’s Lowest Quarter for VC Activity Since 2016” quotes Professor of the Practice Clifford Rossi: All that said, why are Q4’s numbers so low? Clifford Rossi, professor of the practice and executive-in-residence at the University of Maryland’s School of Business, attributes the figures to investors being a bit more conservative as of late. “My sense would be that investors are being a bit more circumspect given the potential for some deterioration in the economy,” he told Technical.ly.
CFO Dive – Jan. 12 – Associate Dean of Research Gilad Chen comments in “Quiet Hiring Dos and Don’ts”: One potential downside to quiet hiring exists when it is poorly managed, [Chen said] in an interview with CFO Dive. “Employees who are sent to new positions may feel their current position is in jeopardy, and it may be threatening to employees,” he said. However, if managed effectively, this concept could be motivating for employees, and become a part of their job rotation and career development opportunities, he said. For example, Google uses quiet hiring as a recruitment tool. “You bring in people for temporary positions, but it’s almost like a trial period, and that’s actually very motivating to those employees,” said Chen.
New Books Network – Jan. 11 – “Understanding Technology Bubbles” reprises a discussion with Smith management and entrepreneurship professors David Kirsch and Brent Goldfarb discussing their book Bubbles and Crashes.
US Army – Jan. 11 – “Soldier Finds Balance with Sikh Faith and Army Service” profiles Maj. Simratpal Singh (MBA ’20) whose career has included instructing West Point cadets on economics and principles of finance (“Smith prepared me to be an instructor at West Point by exposing me to the wonderful faculty who used creative ways to teach students,” said Singh in a separate article).
The New Yorker – Jan. 10 – In a Q&A, Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr discusses: “What a Ban on Non-compete Agreements Could Mean for American Workers.” Related coverage via Maryland Today’s “Management Professor’s Research Spurs U.S. Proposal to Ban Noncompete Agreements.”
Phys.org – Jan. 9 – “How the Experience of Almost Winning Impacts the Performance of Nominees” summarizes research by Smith Dean’s Professor in Leadership and Management Hui Liao ... Related coverage includes posts at Today’s Chronic and Science Newsnet.
Marketplace Radio – Jan. 9 – Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr comments in “The FTC’s Proposed Noncompete Ban Could be a Boon for Lower-Wage Workers: But noncompetes hardly ever go to court, according to University of Maryland economist Evan Starr. “They tend to be enforced informally in exit interviews, in threatening letters to workers,” he said. A few states, including California, have stripped noncompetes of any legal teeth; others have banned them for lower-paying positions. But workers don’t always know that, Starr said. Sometimes just the threat of a lawsuit is enough. “Low-wage workers generally don’t have the wherewithal to finance litigation even for a frivolous noncompete agreement,” he said. If the FTC’s proposed ban goes through, Starr said those workers will have a lot more leverage. As for their employers, he said there are alternatives — like nondisclosure agreements that protect sensitive information without limiting workers’ mobility. Related: Starr comments extensively in MarketWatch’s “FTC Wants to Ban Noncompete Agreements. This Man was Forced to Sign 4 Noncompetes. ‘It Just Doesn’t Feel Right,’ He Says.”
Advantage Biz Marketing – Jan. 6 – “Top Online Courses to Get Ahead in Dynamics Marketing” cites Smith MBA marketing courses.
Baltimore Sun – Jan. 6 – Hank Lucas, Robert H. Smith Professor of Information Systems Emeritus, writes op-ed, “Lessons for CEOs from Southwest Airlines’ Meltdown,” including: Much of the blame for this disaster has been assigned to Southwest’s network operating model: Southwest planes follow routes from one city to another, rather than operate from a hub where planes fly back and forth between two cities. The network model provides greater utilization of planes and less time on the ground, but it is highly sensitive to disruptions, like those from major storms. Southwest managers failed to fully understand the weaknesses in their operating model and failed to mitigate them, and much of this failure came from massive under-investments in information technology.
New York Times – Jan. 5 – "U.S. Moves to Bar Noncompete Agreements in Labor Contracts" quotes and references research by Associate Professor of Management and Organization Evan Starr: The agency estimated that the rule could increase wages by nearly $300 billion a year across the economy. Evan Starr, an economist at the University of Maryland who has studied noncompetes, said that was a plausible wage increase following their elimination. Dr. Starr said noncompetes appeared to lower wages both for workers directly covered by them and for other workers, partly by making the hiring process more costly for employers, who must spend time figuring out whom they can hire and whom they can’t. … Dr. Starr said that noncompetes did appear to encourage businesses to invest more in training, but that there was little evidence that most employees entered into them voluntarily or that they were able to bargain over them. One study found that only 10 percent of workers sought to bargain for concessions in return for signing a noncompete. About one-third became aware of the noncompete only after accepting a job offer. … Related: Starr is quoted in both TechTarget’s “FTC Proposed Ban on Noncompetes seen as Boldest Possible” and Business Insider’s “Ditching Noncompete Clauses Would be a Win for Workers' Rights and Employees in Low-Wage Jobs.”