Publications

Publications 2016

Why the SEC should just say ‘no’ to IEX, CNBC (25 May 2016).

Disruption is Not Innovation, John Lothian News (9 April 2016).

Well-structured sales tax does more for Alaska than income tax, Alaska Dispatch News (1 April 2016).

The potential effects of Reg AT: Unintended risks and diminished cooperation with market participants [CFTC Public Information Comment] (16 March 2016)

Occam’s razor can cut Alaska’s budget problems to the bone, Alaska Dispatch News (9 February 2016).

Publications 2015

Beyond regulation: A cooperative approach to high frequency trading and financial market monitoring. CATO Institute Policy Analysis, No. 771.

Publications 2014

Are the markets really rigged? Internationally syndicated via McClatchy-Tribune (21 April 2014).

HFT regulation requires attention to motives and consequences. Tabb Forum (2 May 2014).

High frequency, fat target. Reason Magazine, (46)6, 73 (November 2014).

An analysis of global HFT regulation: Motivations, market failures, and alternative outcomes. Mercatus Center Working Paper No. 14-11, April 2014.

Publications 2013

CFTC Proposal for High-Speed Trading May Drive Business Offshore American Banker. (18 December 2013).

17 CFR Chapter I Concept Release on Risk Controls and System Safeguards for Automated Trading Environments [CFTC Public Comment] (11 December 2013).

High Frequency Trading: Do Regulators Need to Control this Tool of Informationally Efficient Markets? CATO Institute Policy Analysis No. 731 (22 July 2013).

High Frequency Trading (HFT) is a form of algorithmic trading where firms use high-speed market data and analytics to look for short term supply and demand trading opportunities that often are the product of predictable behavioral or mechanical characteristics of financial markets. Some opponents have argued that these practices create risk and require aggressive regulation. In a new paper, professor of business Holly A. Bell argues that HFT is already being effectively regulated by the market and its participants.

Regulator, Go Slow on Reining In High-Speed Trading. In The Wall Street Journal (8 February 2013), A13

There has been much discussion lately about the risks associated with high-speed algorithmic trading and the need for aggressive regulation. But has the need for regulation passed? Markets are often self-correcting, and there is some evidence to indicate this is occurring.

Publications 2012

Velocity of Information in Efficient Markets: A Theory of Market Value Change. In The Journal of Investing, 21(3), 55-59. doi: 10.3905/joi.2012.21.3.055

This article argues that market prices in contemporary financial markets are driven by the value of information multiplied by a factor of the information’s velocity. These factors combined have the potential to explain several observed market phenomenon, including market volatility during economic crisis or recession, market bubbles, flash crashes, and short-run volatility combined with overreactions and over-corrections. The theory considers both micro and macroeconomic information, and questions the assumption that market prices always reflect intrinsic value alone. While microeconomic information is helpful in determining a security’s intrinsic value relative to other securities, macroeconomic information impacts the aggregate market. The result of our contemporary high-velocity information environment suggests our financial markets are becoming informationally hyperefficient and quasi-rational. This hyperefficiency has the potential to create short-run volatility on a scale not previously experienced.

Efficient Financial Markets as Organizations: A Metaphoric Analysis. In Insights to a Changing World, Volume 2012 Issue 1

Efficient financial markets have often been assigned almost mystic qualities devoid of definable or describable organization. They’ve been described as being controlled by an invisible hand or as having non-ergodic qualities. However, if markets are at least informationally efficient, there must be an organizational structure within which markets operate. Without organization there would be chaos, not efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to explore the market from the perspective of organizational behavior. Two questions will be explored: 1) Are markets by definition and structure similar to organizations? (Markets as organizations), and 2) Do markets behave like organizations? (Markets as organizational metaphors).

Online Learning; Only Better. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Volume 59 Issue 6

I truly believe that most of my full-time, tenure-track colleagues would rather quit their jobs than teach an online course. And that’s a shame, since they are exactly the people who should be helping to set standards for meaningful online education.

My colleagues’ concerns about the quality of online education could largely be overcome if more such courses were taught by talented and experienced professors known for excellence in face-to-face delivery. Some of the best learning experiences are student-centered, not faculty-centered. I realize that this requires us to let go of the idea that the three hours of weekly lectures we deliver in face-to-face courses add significant value to student learning.

Publications 2011

Toward A Value Inclusive Theory of Economic Decision Making: A ‘New Science’ Model In European Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 21 Number 4, pp. 638-649.

This paper explores one option for the development of a theoretical approach to economic decision-making that goes beyond the mechanical-mathematical models based on the assumptions of rational self-interest and utility maximization. The proposed model incorporates facts, values, relationships, cooperation, learning, and other factors into economic decision-making and applies to both the micro- and macroeconomic levels. While the model is descriptive in nature, it has predictive potential to establish a menu of alternative outcomes or “opportunity sets”. The goal of this discussion is to move the language of economic decision-making away from the mid-nineteenth century language of science toward the concepts associated with the complex systems approach of the ‘new science’.

Status of the ‘BRICs’: An Analysis of Growth Factors In International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Issue 69(2), 19-25.

In 2001, Goldman Sachs coined the term BRICs (Wilson, Kelston, & Ahmed, 2010) to describe the four large developing countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China that Goldman Sachs predict will overtake the G6 (US, Japan, UK, Germany, France, and Italy) in terms of GDP (in US$) by 2050 (Wilson & Purushothaman, 2003). The report established a set of four core factors that would create the conditions the BRIC countries would need for the predicted growth.

This paper explores recent reports on those factors and others to compare the BRIC and G6 countries in terms of readiness for (or sustainability of) growth. An analysis of what these factors might indicate, potential difficulties with economic development in the BRIC countries, and the role of the Goldman Sachs report are also considered.

A Contemporary Framework for Emotions in Consumer Decision-Making In International Journal of Business and Social Science, Volume 2 Number 17, pp. 12-16.

Traditional models of consumer decision-making are largely cognitive and sequential in nature. While there is some recognition of an emotional component in the decision-making process, traditional models assume emotions should be overcome, cognitive and affective processes and multiple emotions cannot exist simultaneously, and a dichotomy exists between satisfaction and emotion in consumer decision-making. This paper examines contemporary research that challenges traditional assumptions about the role of emotions in consumer decision-making and introduces the role of consumer emotional intelligence into the process. The discussion concludes with a look at the strategic and ethical implications for marketers.

Stay tuned for additional publications currently in review or In Press.

Publications image courtesy of Digitalart