Economics and finance | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
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Economics and finance

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Asia as a Growth Pole: Past, Present, and Future

Dec 2, 2019, 4:30-5:50 pm EST
Weill Hall, Annenberg Auditorium
In this talk, Chang Yong Rhee, Director of the Asia and Pacific Department at the International Monetary Fund, will discuss Asia as a growth pole in the past, present, and future.
Ford School

Funding Available for Fintech - Deadline Nov. 20

Nov 20, 2019, 9:00 am-5:00 pm EST
Suite 241; 400 North Ingalls
The University of Michigan FinTech Collaboratory, of which the Center on Finance, Law & Policy is part, is collaborating with MCubed to announce new funding opportunities for University of Michigan faculty who are undertaking research, course development, or other educational programming focused on financial technology. 
CFLP Blue Bag Lunches

College savings accounts for HeadStart families: Preliminary results from Michigan

Nov 7, 2019, 12:00-1:00 pm EST
Room 1025 Jeffries Hall
The Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship and Downpayment (SEED) initiative began in 2003 to test asset-building accounts for children and youth with the goal of providing strategic and practical lessons in how to create an inclusive CSA system. At the SEED impact assessment site in Michigan (MI-SEED), 500 Head Start families were offered Michigan 529 Educational Savings plans. The accounts were opened with an initial contribution of $800 from program funding and a possible $200 match from the State of Michigan. Any subsequent savings by the family were matched 1:1 up to $1200. Another set of similar Head Start families made up a comparison group that was not offered accounts. Most of the participating pre-school children are now old enough to graduate from high school and actually use the accounts to fund post-secondary education. This presentation will offer preliminary longitudinal data on accounts, standardized test scores, and other educational outcomes over time. 

The Role of Congress in U.S. Diplomacy

Oct 25, 2019, 11:30 am-1:00 pm EDT
Betty Ford Classroom 1110 Weill Hall
We invite you to a student session with Congressman Ted Deutch and his Chief of Staff Josh Rogin.
Ford School

Multidisciplinary Design Jam

Oct 18, 2019, 1:30-5:30 pm EDT
R0320 Ross School of Business
Design Jams are fast and fun, with food and prizes. They are not your typical group project.
Ford School

Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project Showcase

Oct 17, 2019, 5:00-8:00 pm EDT
University of Michigan Detroit Center 3663 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI 48201
The University of Michigan's Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project is hosting its first Small Business Showcase. Meet some of the 30 Detroit small business owners who are working with University of Michigan marketing, communications, law, design, and accounting students this fall -- and a few of our superstar alumni businesses, too!  
CFLP Blue Bag Lunches

Modernizing bank merger review

Sep 12, 2019, 12:00-1:00 pm EDT
Room 1025 Jeffries Hall
  Sixty years ago, Congress established a federal pre-approval regime for bank mergers to protect consumers from then-unprecedented consolidation in the banking sector. This process worked well for several decades, but it has since atrophied, producing numerous “too big to fail” banks. Professor Kress's research contends that regulators’ current approach to evaluating bank merger proposals is poorly suited for modern financial markets. Policymakers and scholars have traditionally focused on a single issue: whether a bank merger would reduce competition. Over the past two decades, however, changes in bank regulation and market structure—including the repeal of interstate banking restrictions and the emergence of nonbank financial service providers—have rendered bank antitrust analysis largely obsolete. As a result, regulators have rubber stamped recent bank mergers, despite evidence that such deals could harm consumers and destabilize financial markets.  Professor Kress's research asserts that contemporary bank merger analysis should instead emphasize statutory factors that regulators have long neglected: whether a proposed merger would increase systemic risks, enhance the public welfare, and strengthen the relevant institutions. Professor Kress's research urges regulators to modernize their approach, and it proposes a novel framework to ensure that bank merger oversight safeguards the financial system. The proposals contained herein have far-reaching implications not only for bank regulation but also for the ongoing debate over merger policy in technology, agriculture, and other industries.

ComCap 19

Jun 11-13, 2019, 9:00 am-5:00 pm EDT
Benson & Edith Ford Conference Center
ComCap19, presented by the National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3), is a multi-day gathering that offers a unique educational and networking opportunity for all those working toward equitable, resilient, and engaged communities. 
Ford School
CFLP Blue Bag Lunches

The rise of whistleblower bounties to prevent and deter corporate wrongdoing

Apr 4, 2019, 12:00-1:00 pm EDT
Jeffries Hall 0220
Many statutes now permit bounties for whistleblowers who provide enforcement relevant information to the authorities.  The growth in such bounties has been quite rapid in recent years generating substantial scholarly, policy and practical interest.  However, much of the scholarship does not address a critical feature of corporate liability in the US – there is considerable uncertainty about both the scope and definition of wrongdoing. This talk examines the effects of this uncertainty on the desirable structure and incidence of bounty regimes.  Some key findings are that the greater this uncertainty the harder it will be to gather information about wrongdoing both within a firm and more generally because individuals will likely be reluctant to share information that might be relevant to enforcement. This has numerous effects. First, as gathering and sharing of information becomes more difficult it will become harder to deter and prevent wrongdoing, which in part depends on gathering and sharing information.  Second, weaker gathering and sharing of information within the firm will hamper the ability of employees to work together cohesively. This not only worsens firm performance (which has its own costs), but also is likely to increase wrongdoing because poor firm performance is a key predicator of corporate wrongdoing. The analysis thus counsels caution in extending whistleblower bounties to areas where the underlying law is uncertain, provides insights on how one might design a bounty system in light of this uncertainty (e.g., differentiating between internal and external whistleblowers, varying bounties by firm size), and lays out certain steps that might be taken to ameliorate some of the identified effects of uncertainty.
Economic Development Seminar

Hierarchical Corruption

Mar 28, 2019, 4:00-5:30 pm EDT
3240 Weill Hall
We present and explain the vertical organization of corruption in a traffic police agency.
Ford School

Work | Force: Solving for jobs, mobility, and equity in an era of rapid change

Mar 26, 2019, 4:00-7:30 pm EDT
Ross School of Business, Tauber Colloquium
The event will feature distinguished leaders in the field of workforce development and economic mobility including a keynote address from Walmart's Greg Foran, US President and CEO and Julie Gehrki, Vice President of Philanthropy, and closing remarks from Garlin Gilchrist, Lieutenant Governor of the State of Michigan.
Ford School

US-Japan Automotive Conference 2.0

Mar 15, 2019, 10:00 am-4:30 pm EDT
Weiser Hall 1010
A revival of the U.S.-Japan Automotive Conference held annually between 1981 and 1989, USJAC 2.0 will gather industry leaders, policymakers, and scholars from both sides of the Pacific to discuss the past, present, and future of the U.S. and Japanese auto industries, paying particular attention to the issues of trade, management, and technological change. Keynote speaker and panelist announcements forthcoming.
CFLP Blue Bag Lunches

Local Government Fiscal Health: Do subjective self-assessments match "the numbers"?

Mar 14, 2019, 12:00-1:00 pm EDT
Jeffries Hall Room 0220
Local government fiscal health is typically assessed using objective financial indicators, but little is understood about how local officials subjectively understand their own fiscal health. We compare self-assessment data from the Michigan Public Policy Survey with financial data on Michigan local governments to explore the extent to which self-assessments align with conventional financial indicators. Qualitative results reveal that local officials emphasize long-term spending pressures (e.g. roads, infrastructure) and external factors, such as uncertainty around property values and state aid (i.e. revenue sharing) payments, when assessing their fiscal health. Quantitative results provide some corroborating evidence, but in general, conventional indicators are not powerful predictors of self-assessments, especially for high-stress governments. We believe that part of the disparity is that financial indicators do a poor job of capturing what local officials say they are most worried about. We suggest that self-assessments may be a useful supplement to conventional measures in capturing “true” fiscal health.

Data Privacy and Portability in Financial Technology Symposium

Feb 23, 2019, 8:30 am-5:00 pm EST
Jeffries Hall Room 1225
The Data Privacy and Portability in Financial Technology Symposium celebrates the Michigan Technology Law Review’s 25th Anniversary by hosting an event dedicated to cutting-edge scholarship at the intersection of technology and the law. Specifically, this symposium is designed to examine the inherent tensions between securing privacy rights and the ease at which transactions occur, facilitated by new innovative technologies.

2019 NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition at Ford School

Feb 23, 2019, 8:00 am-7:30 pm EST
Annenberg Auditorium and 1210, 1220, 1230 Weill
On February 23, the Ford School will host graduate students from 14 univerisities to participate in the 2019 NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition. This year’s competition—a partnership between the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA)—will connect a record 585 students from 11 global host sites including Dhaka, Cairo, Mexico City, and San Francisco to tackle policy issues associated with forced migration through computer-based simulated game play. 
CFLP Blue Bag Lunches

Currency manipulation

Feb 7, 2019, 12:00-1:00 pm EST
Jeffries Hall 0220
Governments have increasingly relied on exchange rate stabilization policies, specifically intervention operations in currency markets and capital controls, to offset external shocks.  The focus on exchange rate stabilization is not limited to countries with pegged exchange rate regimes.  Indeed, a number of countries that currently actively intervene in currency markets self-describe as floaters. The U.S. has responded by raising concerns that these policies amount to currency manipulation. Article IV of the IMF Articles of Agreement requires that members “avoid manipulating exchange rates” in order to gain an unfair competitive advantage over other members. Separately (since 1989) the U.S. Treasury must report to Congress biannually regarding whether individual trading partners are manipulating currencies for unfair advantage.  This talk will examine both the theoretical underpinning and empirical evidence on currency intervention and manipulation, with the goal of better understanding when exchange rate stabilization is effective from the point of view of domestic policy-makers and when it should be considered manipulative from a global perspective.