Seminar FSS2021 - Current Topics in Finance - Chair of Corporate Governance Prof. Dr. Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi, Luisa Langer, and Chia-Yi Yen
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Chair of Corporate Governance
Seminar FSS2021 – Current Topics in Finance
Prof. Dr. Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi, Luisa Langer, and Chia-Yi Yen
1 1
Organization
• All necessary information (including topic descriptions) can be found on our website
https://niessen.bwl.uni-mannheim.de
• Contact details for general questions: Chia-Yi Yen, cyen[at]mail.uni-mannheim.de
• Advisor:
– Luisa Langer: lundagar[at]mail.uni-mannheim.de
– Chia-Yi Yen: cyen[at]mail.uni-mannheim.de
2 2What are the prerequisites?
• You are a master student.
• You have successfully completed at least one finance course.
• Some knowledge of statistics and econometrics is useful and participants should be motivated to
undertake empirical work.
• You are available in the time period from beginning of January to end of February.
3 3Time-line
Please refer to the timeline information on the respective website:
https://www.bwl.uni-mannheim.de/en/finance/teaching/master/seminar-thesis/#c91102
• Submission of Online Applications
• Topics Allocation Announcement
• Starting Date
• Registration/Withdrawal Period
• Literature Review Paper Submission (6 Weeks)
• Empirical Paper Submission (8 Weeks)
Please pay attention to the deadlines!
4 4FIN 604 Stata in Finance
• New course on how to write an empirical paper using Stata and the databases offered at the
University of Mannheim.
• Not a mandatory prerequisite for writing a seminar paper or master thesis but highly
recommended - in particular for empirical seminar theses and almost all of the master theses in
the finance area.
• 2 ECTS
• Detailed information on the tutorial is available on the website of the Chair of Prof. Theissen:
https://www.bwl.uni-mannheim.de/en/finance/teaching/master/seminar-thesis/#c125629
5 5How to apply?
• Submit your priority list online between December 08 - 18, 2020
• You can combine topics from different chairs. For example,
– First preference: “3rd Topic, Chair of Prof. Niessen-Ruenzi”;
– Second preference: “10th Topic, Chair of Prof. Ruenzi”;
– Third preference: “4th Topic, Chair of Prof. Theissen”
• Please only choose topics you are really willing to work on
• The allocation of topics is based on the average grade of your finance exams and your priority list
from the seminar application form.
– Priority will be given to students with a high semester count.
6 6How do we grade?
• The seminar paper will be supervised by Prof. Niessen-Ruenzi and an assigned advisor.
• Grading:
– 2/3 seminar paper
– 1/3 presentation of the seminar paper
• Own (empirical) contribution will be rewarded.
• Plagiarism: No excuse policy
7 7How should your paper look like?
• 12 pages (±10%) (excluding appendix)
• Language: English
• Detailed formal requirements: See the guidelines provided on our website:
https://www.bwl.uni-mannheim.de/en/niessen-ruenzi/teaching/course-page/englisch-
fin731/#c162791
8 8General remarks on the topics
• For each “broader“ topic, there exists a literature review as well as an empirical topic:
– Odd topic number (e.g. NR3) indicates literature review
– Even topic number (e.g. NR4) indicates empirical topic
• Pay attention when filing your priority list!
• At most one student will be permitted for each topic version.
• For literature reviews, submission of the seminar paper within 6 weeks is required.
• For empirical topics, submission of the seminar paper within 8 weeks is required.
• Preliminary date for the seminar presentations: 11.03.2021 and 12.03.2021
• Raw data for the empirical topics will be either provided or gained from the databases available
at the university, but processing and supplementing the data is necessary.
9 9NR1/NR2: Gender Gap in Financial Literacy and Retirement
Outcomes
Advisor: Luisa Langer
Motivation:
• Financial literacy surveys in many developed countries show that a significant fraction of consumers is poorly informed about financial products
and practices.
• Men are consistently shown to have higher financial literacy levels than women (Lusardi and Mitchell, 2014).
• One explanation for why women fail to plan for retirement, or do so unsuccessfully, may be that they are financially illiterate (Lusardi and Mitchell, 2008).
• Adding to this, is the well documented gender difference in retirement outcomes, in which women expect lower gross pension retirement payments than
men (Niessen-Ruenzi and Schneider, 2019).
Literature review (NR1)
• The goal of this seminar thesis is to provide a comprehensive literature review on financial literacy and retirement planning.
• The discussion should include but is not limited to:
(1) understand whether there is association between financial literacy and retirement planning/saving behavior
(2) whether women are more at risk to face retirement age with low retirement income
(3) analyze potential ways to overcome this gender pension gap, for example, by providing financial education programs
(4) find out examples of companies that provide this financial training and discuss the financial topics used as part of the education training
Empirical topic (NR2)
• The goal of this seminar thesis is to assess gender differences in financial literacy.
• The analysis can include measures employed to assess financial literacy, determinants of the gender gap in financial literacy, from when does this gap starts to
develop, and country differences in financial literacy gender gap.
• Students are expected to access the OECD PISA dataset for financial literacy variables and perform some basic statistical and regression analysis on gender gaps in
financial literacy around the world.
• Empirical work for this topic requires the use of statistical software (e.g. SPSS), manipulation of data, and the application of regression analysis.
1010NR3/NR4: The Use of Metaphors in Financial Investments
Advisor: Luisa Langer
Motivation:
• Examples of well-known metaphors used by the financial industry, financial journalists and financial supervisors are “building your portfolio”, “level playing field”,
and “beating the market”.
• Metaphors create imagery and induce affect, and this is likely to influence risk perception and return expectations (Prast et al., 2018).
• Recent studies focus on the effect of metaphors on the receiver and how the source domain ranks on a femininity/masculinity scale.
• Boggio et al. (2017) find that metaphors inf financial education websites are predominantly and (stereo)typically masculine, so the language of investor
communication may create feelings of familiarity and belonging among men while creating feelings of distance and non-belonging among women.
Literature review (NR3)
• The goal of this seminar thesis is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature on the use of metaphors in financial markets as well as the role metaphors in
influencing investment attitudes and behavior.
• The discussion should include but is not limited to:
(1) identifying the most common metaphors and their source domain employed in financial market research
(2) the influence of metaphors (whether and how) on investors’ perceptions and expectations regarding risk
(3) how metaphors source domain rank on a femininity/masculinity scale
Empirical topic (NR4)
• The goal of this seminar thesis is to examine the use of metaphors in financial investments education websites and to assess whether the communication employed
is gender neutral.
• follow the qualitative analysis of metaphors in investing websites employed by Boggio et al. (2017)
• Hand-collection of content provided by two websites, one in the United States and one in Germany, targeting beginning retail investors is required.
• A metaphor list for each country/website has to be developed that captures each source domain, including a scale for femininity and masculinity
• The metaphor lists have to be compared across the two countries
• It has to be analyzed how metaphors used in investor communication can be traced back to similar source domains
1111NR5/NR6: The Role of Individual Characteristics in Retirement
Savings Decisions
Advisor: Luisa Langer
Motivation:
• An important decision facing an individual contributing to a retirement plan is how best to invest the contributions to derive the maximum
long-term value increase.
• Ageing, gender and changed labor supply circumstances are key suggested drivers of retirement savings investment strategy.
• Korniotis and Kumar (2011) finds older and experienced investors are more likely to follow rules of thumb that reflect greater investment
knowledge.
• Watson and McNaughton (2007) find that women choose more conservative investment strategies than men and that lower income (and
thus pension contributions) is the primary contributor to the lower projected retirement benefits of women.
Literature review (NR5)
• The goal of this seminar thesis is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature on the role of individual characteristics in
retirement savings and investments decisions.
• The discussion should include but is not limited to:
(1) retirement savings and investment strategy behavior based on individual characteristics
(2) influence of demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, marital status, education, income level, employment time) on risk
attitudes towards savings and investment decisions
Empirical topic (NR6)
• The goal of this thesis is to examine the impact that individual characteristics are likely to have on the choice of retirement savings and
old-age provisions
• follow the regression analysis from Watson and McNaughton (2007)
• employ data from SAVE (Saving and Old-Age Provision in Germany). This data will be provided (available only in German
language).
• Empirical work for this topic requires the use of statistical software (e.g. Stata), manipulation of data, and the application of econometric
regression analysis. Some experience in this area is needed.
1212NR7/NR8: Mutual fund industry and financial market fragility
Advisor: Chia-Yi Yen
Motivation:
• The liquidity and redemption risk of mutual funds pose a threat to financial market stability.
• Market is fragile when everyone sells the shares at the same time…
• First-mover advantage
• Institutional herding
• First-mover advantage
• To pay the redeeming investors, mutual funds may have to conduct unprofitable trades and bear the
incurred transaction costs when selling less liquid portfolio assets on short notice.
• These damages are carried by the remaining investors who stay in the fund.
• “Mutual fund runs”: investors have a stronger incentive to redeem if they know other investors are going to
redeem.
• Institutional herding
• Institutional investors following each other into and out of the same securities
Literature review (NR7)
• on mutual funds’ liquidity risk with a focus on its consequence and potential causes.
• (1) the mechanism how mutual funds’ liquidity risks lead to financial market fragility
• (2) the measures of mutual funds’ liquidity risks available in the literature
• (3) whether and how institutional herding or other trading behaviors of mutual funds is associated with
market fragility.
• (4) liquidity management and cash management
Empirical topic (NR8)
• how liquidity and redemption risk of mutual funds is associated with financial market fragility.
• replicate the main empirical findings of Chen, Goldstein, and Jiang (2010)
• further examine whether the relation is more pronounced for small-cap funds that usually hold more illiquid
assets.
1313Final Remarks
• Visit our website and find a detailed description of every topic
https://www.bwl.uni-mannheim.de/en/niessen-ruenzi/teaching/course-page/englisch-
fin731/
• Pay attention to the deadlines (submission of priority list).
• Apply only for topics you really want to work on.
• In case of questions, do not hesitate to contact us.
– Luisa Langer : lundagar[at]mail.uni-mannheim.de
– Chia-Yi Yen: cyen[at]mail.uni-mannheim.de
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