Students flock to Rose Hill for Gabelli research conference

Featured Events | Apr 22, 2015 | Gabelli School of Business

Attendees listen to a presentation at the Gabelli School of Business Undergraduate Business Research Conference.

By Joe Vitale, GabelliConnect Freelance Writer

The Gabelli School of Business held its Undergraduate Business Research Conference last week, covering a variety of topics including audit pricing, gender roles in advertising, and peer-to-peer lending.

The presentations took place in both the McGinley Center and Hughes Hall, where students from several universities were able to present their research to a group of moderators and their fellow panelists, as well as guests and other conference attendees.

Among the other universities at the conference were Pace University and Loyola University New Orleans.

Christ Mitchsow, a student from John Carroll University in Cleveland, presented on fair value accounting and the financial crisis of 2008.

“It was really interesting to be here,” Mitchsow said following his presentation in Hughes Hall. “I enjoyed all of the presentations, and the presentation focusing on deletions and additions of stock prices was fantastic.”

Mitchsow was referring to the research presented by Jonathan Dokler, GABELLI BS ’15, who focused on the changing impact of index inclusion.

In his research, Dokler found that market efficiency has increased over the time around the addition and deletion of stock from an index. The addition data, he said, is vey clear while the deletions data is less so.

Ross Garlick, GABELLI BS ’15, focused his research on peer-to-peer lending. To gather information, he studied the returns and volatility of peer-topper loan portfolios from 2007 to 2010. Ultimately, he found that peer-to-peer investments are valuable and can be an alternative option for investors in the future.

Kevin Soares, GABELLI BS ’15, studied investment and investor longevity in SRI funds. Wyatt Miller, GABELLI BS ’15, studied student loans, focusing on data trends in recent years. Nicole Iman, GABELLI BS ’15, studied the financial war on terror and asked whether it can be determined as successful.

James McCann, one of the panel moderators and a lecturer of finance at Gabelli, spoke highly of the panelists during his session on Wednesday afternoon.

“On accountability, this research was all spot on regarding what we see today in the business world,” he said.