Alex J. Holcomb The University of Texas at El Paso College of Business Administration - Room 226 500 W. University Ave. El Paso, TX 79968 Email: ajholcomb@utep.edu Website: www.alexjholcomb.com Work Experience Assistant Professor. Department of Finance and Economics. The University of Texas at El Paso. 2015-present. Education Ph.D. in Finance.. 2015. M.S. in Finance.. 2010. B.S. in Finance, cum laude.. 2008. Research Interests Corporate finance, bond pricing, corporate events, private equity, taxes, experimental finance and economics Working Papers The Effect of Industry Restructuring on Peer Firms (Latest Version: January 2018). - Presented at 2017 SFA Annual Meeting (Key West) - Presented at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Feb 2015 - Presented at Citibank Capital Markets Research Group Feb 2015 - Presented at Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) Jan 2015 - Presented at Colegio Universitario de Estudios Financieros (CUNEF) Jan 2015 - Internal Presentation (UTD Seminar) September 2014 The Effect of Informative Events in a Contingent Claims Pricing Framework: Evidence from Newly Issued Securities Markets, with Paul Mason. (Latest Version: March 2016). - Presented at 2016 Financial Management Association Asia Meetings (Sydney, Australia) - Presented at 2014 SWFA Annual Meeting (Dallas) - Presented at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Nov 2013 - Internal Presentation (UTD Seminar) Oct 2013 Investment Income Taxes and Firms Going Private Decisions, with Paul Mason, and Harold Zhang. (Latest Version: December 2017). - Revise and Resubmit at The Journal of the American Taxation Association (JATA). - Presented at 2014 SWFA Annual Meeting (Dallas), by coauthor - Outstanding Paper Award 2014 SWFA Annual Meeting - Outstanding Student Paper Award 2014 SWFA Annual Meeting - Internal Presentation (UTD Seminar) Oct 2013, by coauthor 1
Cutthroats or Comrades: Information Sharing Among Competing Fund Managers, with Bernhard Ganglmair and Noah Myung. (Latest Version: November 2017). - Presented at 2016 Society for Experimental Finance Conference (Tuscon) - Presented at 2016 Research in Behavioral Finance Conference (Amsterdam, Netherlands) - Internal Presentation (UTEP Seminar) Oct 2015 - Presented at 2014 Dublin Behavioral and Experimental Finance Colloquium - Presented at 2014 Experimental Finance Conference (Zurich, Switzerland), by coauthor - Presented at 2014 ESA International Meetings (Hawaii), by coauthor - Presented at CBLOE Seminar Series (UTD) March 2014, by coauthor Damage Control: Corporate Disclosures around Regulatory Enforcement Actions, with Rebecca Files, Paul Mason, and Gerald S. Martin. (Latest Version: December 2017). - Presented at Baylor University February 2016, by coauthor Work-in-Progress Market Threats and Firms Choice of 401k Options, with Han Xia. Discontinued Work Framing : It Really Does Matter, with Catherine Eckel. (Latest Version: August 2016). Through a Glass Darkly: Going Private Transactions as a Reflection of IPOs, with Dupinder Kaur and Paul Mason. (Latest Version: January 2013). Consulting Work Market Analysis of the Proposed Change to the RFS Point of Obligation February 2017. Foreign Direct Investment and Regulatory Uncertainty : Failures of the Make in India Campaign January 2018. Popular and News Media To save jobs, EPA should reform fuel standard Opinion - Philadelphia Inquirer June 2017. Awards and Recognitions Teaching Teaching Excellence Award - Economics and Finance Department - May 2017 Research SWFA Annual Meeting, Outstanding Paper Award - Mar 2014 SWFA Annual Meeting, Outstanding Student Paper Award - Mar 2014 2014 American Finance Association Student Travel Grant - Jan 2014 Teaching Experience Instructor, Financial Analysis and Firm Valuation (undergraduate), UTEP - (Fall 2017 - Present) Instructor, Business Finance (undergraduate), UTEP - (Fall 2015 - Present) 2
Instructor, Business Finance (undergraduate), UT Dallas Evaluation 4.7/5 - (Spring 2014 - Spring 2105) Teaching and Research Assistant, UT Dallas - (August 2009 - Spring 2015) Grants Research Grant: Center and Laboratory for Behavioral Operations and Economics at UT Dallas, January - May 2014 (PI: B. Ganglmair) Refereeing Journals : Journal of Borderland Studies (2018) Southern Economics Journal (2017) Service College Research Award Committee - Spring 2016 Department Seminar Series Committee Chair - (Fall 2015 - Current) Profession Discussant - Southern Finance Association - November 2017 Session Chair - Financial Management Association, Asia Meetings - July 2016 Discussant - Financial Management Association, Asia Meetings - July 2016 Session Chair - Annual Meeting of the Financial Management Association - Oct 2015 Discussant - Annual Meeting of the Financial Management Association - Oct 2015 Discussant - Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Finance Association - Mar 2014 Personal Information Citizenship: U.S. Citizen 3
References Robert Kieschnick Associate Professor of Finance rkiesch@utdallas.edu 972-883-6273 Han Xia han.xia@utdallas.edu 972-883-6385 Bernhard Ganglmair Assistant Professor of Managerial Economics ganglmair@utdallas.edu 972-883-4736 Malcolm Wardlaw malcolm.wardlaw@utdallas.edu 972-883-5903 Harold Zhang Professor of Finance harold.zhang@utdallas.edu 972-883-4777 Gary Bolton O.P. Jindal Chair of Managerial Economics gbolton@utdallas.edu 972-883-5807 Paper Abstracts The Effect of Industry Restructuring on Peer Firms (Latest Version: January 2018). I study the bond price reaction of a merged firms peers, in order to better understand how the market responds to a restructuring. I argue that a merger announcement may signal the possibility of a merger wave to the industry, and in doing so, increase the conditional probability that peer firms might themselves be acquired in the future. Consistent with this hypothesis, I show that price reactions are stronger for firms that have a higher unconditional probability of being acquired ex-ante. Furthermore I show that following an initial merger, when the signal about a potentially upcoming wave should be the strongest, the peer bond returns are the highest. In addition, I document that, cross-sectionally, the abnormal returns I observe from peer bondholders are concentrated among firms that have the highest expected coinsurance benefit from a potential acquisition. I show that this is the case for bondholders between firms and within firms. The Effect of Informative Events in a Contingent Claims Pricing Framework: Evidence from Newly Issued Securities Markets, with Paul Mason. (Latest Version: March 2016). In this paper we use initial public offerings as a quasi-natural experiment with which to study the effect of information signals, on peer firms, within a contingent claims pricing framework. We conclude that peer investors systematically view the IPO as a signal that portends a rise in expected industry growth. We show that peer investors expect the information signaled by the IPO to mainly affect the volatility of their firm. In a contingent claims framework this results in an asymmetric price change, with equity investors experiencing a negative return and debt investors experiencing a positive return. Investment Income Taxes and Firms Going Private Decisions, with Paul Mason, and Harold Zhang. (Latest Version: December 2017). We provide the first empirical investigation of a demand-side personal investment income tax effect on public firms going private transactions. Utilizing a novel identification strategy, we uncover strong evidence that an investment income tax rate reduction increases public to private transactions. Applying a difference-in-difference methodology, we find that private equity firm sponsored public to private transactions increased by 73% for the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, and 65% for the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. We attribute our overall finding to a private equity firm s unique ability to capture the benefit of lower capital gains tax rates. Furthermore, our analysis shows that the increased number of public to private transactions is not due to the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. 4
Cutthroats or Comrades: Information Sharing Among Competing Fund Managers, with Bernhard Ganglmair and Noah Myung. (Latest Version: November 2017). Recent evidence of correlated trading among networked fund managers provides an indication that professional investors strategically exchange investment ideas. To examine how and why such information sharing arises, we design a laboratory experiment in which managers share ideas until one of them chooses to terminate the exchange for a competitive advantage or fails to generate a new idea. We find that managers sharing increases in rivals ability or subjective expectation that rivals will share in return (i.e., intention). Furthermore, expectations about rivals intentions matter more than rivals ability, and rivals ability matters more than a manager s own ability. Damage Control: Corporate Disclosures around Regulatory Enforcement Actions, with Rebecca Files, Paul Mason, and Gerald S. Martin. (Latest Version: December 2017). This paper examines managerial incentives to alter soft information and evaluates whether managers attempt to mitigate the negative outcomes of enforcement actions by altering the tone and/or readability of required disclosures. We show that following fraudulent activity, managers make disclosures more readable and use more negative and uncertain words and conclude that managers provide clearer and more readable disclosures in an attempt to reduce the set of negative outcomes they face from enforcement. Managers with foreknowledge of fraud are more aggressive in altering disclosure, as are managers that ex-ante have a larger set of negative outcomes relative to matched peers. 5