Inflation and labor market fluctuations are threatening the fragile economic recovery. Increasingly, Americans are worried about their financial future. Join Ford School economists for a discussion of these crucial issues.
Join us for an important discussion between University of Michigan Ford School Dean Michael Barr with Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves, to discuss his work to revive the economy while combating the racist systems embedded within it.
Professor Nadya Malenko discusses her research regarding venture capital backed firms, which face neither the regulatory requirements nor a major separation of ownership and control of their public peers.
Public Policy and Institutional Discrimination Series,
Policy Talks @ the Ford School,
Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Lecture Series
The series is designed to foster dialogue on important issues of U.S. public policy. Faculty discussant Bill Bynum will focus on the role of policy to advance economic opportunity for disenfranchised populations.
Terri Friedline will discuss her book, Banking on a Revolution: Why Financial Technology Won’t Save a Broken System, which takes a critical look at advancements in financial technology (“fintech”) in the banking and financial industries.
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.
U. S. Department of the Treasury, Cash Room
Washington, DC
The U.S. Office of Financial Research and the University of Michigan’s Center on Finance, Law, and Policy will bring together regulators, policymakers, lawyers, economists, financial institutions, investors, financial technology companies, and experts on data science, cybersecurity, and finance.
The rebirth of Detroit is dependent on a multitude of factors including issues related to urban infrastructure, the revitalization of neighborhoods, and beyond. Critical to this rebirth is investment in the city. For the city administration, this investment means being able to collect sufficient tax revenues to turn on streetlights, police neighborhoods, replace infrastructure, and finance other projects. Unfortunately, one consequence of the challenges faced by the city has been a culture of non-payment of the taxes owed. Over the last three years, the Master of Accounting students at the Ross School of Business have worked closely with the city to help address these non-payment issues. This talk will describe the projects the students have worked on, the benefits to both the city and to the students, and the work that still needs to be done. We will be joined by the city’s Director of Audit and Compliance, Odell Bailey.