First Impressions: No Need to Panic! – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the more interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
The Personal Statement: No Need to Panic! – Inside Kellstadt
First impressions are stressful across the board, which can make the impression you attach to your business school application all the more nerve-wracking. Current DePaul Kellstadt MBA student Kristen Hall took to the official Kellstadt blog to offer some insights into crafting the perfect personal statement.
In “The Personal Statement: No Need to Panic!” she writes, “My advice to prospective students writing their personal statements would be to share what inspired you to apply to Kellstadt. Each applicant has a different story and connection to the program and sharing your own “Aha!” moment is a way to set yourself apart from other applications.”
You can read Hall’s entire piece here.
How a Genetically Modified Soybean Helped Modernize an Economy – Kellogg Insight
Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management Associate Professor of Finance Jacopo Ponticelli recently co-authored new research that illuminates how “countries develop from agrarian economies into more industrialized ones” by examining the impact of Monsanto’s genetically modified Roundup Ready soybean seed (a.k.a. the Maradona soy) on Brazilian agriculture in the early 2000s.
The research, which was co-authored by University of Zurich economist Bruno Caprettini and Paula Bustos of Spain’s Center for Monetary and Financial Studies, found that “the seed freed up farm laborers to find other jobs, allowing Brazil’s industrial sector to grow, [and] helped farmers put more money in the bank, which led to urban centers getting access to cheaper credit, allowing banks to finance more manufacturing and services firms.”
Ponticelli suggests that Brazil’s example illustrates how “bumps in agricultural productivity can ripple through an entire economy, not only bolstering the manufacturing sector, but exporting fresh capital to the urban centers where new industries tend to grow.”
You can find the full article here.
Mendoza Finance Prof Wins Research Award for Linking Electricity Usage with Stock Returns – Mendoza Ideas & News
Notre Dame University Mendoza College of Business Professor of Finance Zhi Da received the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis’ 2017 William F.Sharpe Award for Scholarship in Financial Research this past May in recognition of his innovative research, which finds that the “growth rate of industrial electricity usage predicts future stock returns for up to one year.”
According to Professor Da’s paper, “industrial electricity usage tracks the output of the most cyclical sectors. So high rate of growth for industrial electricity usage today—indicating an increase in production due to a company’s expectation of increased sales — predicts low stock returns in the future, consistent with a principle called the countercyclical risk premium, [which] states that the market premium tends to run counter to the business cycle.
According to the article, “The Sharpe Award is intended to foster excellence in financial research. Recipients receive a $5,000 prize for the best article published each year in the JFQA.”
You can find more about the reward and Da’s work here.
Columbia Prof Talks Solar Financial and Technological Woes
Columbia Business School recently published an article that explores the uncertain future of solar energy–strange, considering we are hot on the heels of a bona fide solar feeding frenzy due in no small part to federal tax credits and 70 percent drops in prices due to low-cost Chinese panels.
Columbia professor of professional practice Bruce Usher says, “The challenge to solar has long been who’s got the money to spend up front and who wants to take the risk.” The article explains that SunEdison figured out that the solution was leasing solar systems as opposed to selling them. Their model, which is ideal for reduced risk, spread like wildfire to competitors like Sunrun, SolarCity and Vivint. According to research, “more than 70 percent of residential installations in the three largest American solar markets—California, Arizona, and Colorado—were leased.”
Usher explains the underlying catch-22 of the solar explosion (or should I say implosion?): “In the majority of states today, consumers can switch to solar and save money.” But the squirreled-away cash is a result of net-metering, a process by which customers sell electricity back to the grid. “If you can’t sell electricity back to the grid, the economics of solar are terrible. The vast majority of power generated is in a five-hour window during the day. You can’t use it all, so you need to sell it back to the grid.”
Cameron explains that these grids are clunky, expensive, and nearly obsolete but discarding it altogether isn’t really an option: “A grid connection is a guarantee of power when you need it.” The Energizer bunny just ain’t gonna cut it.
“When it comes to net metering, residential consumers shouldn’t get the full retail rate, but they shouldn’t be cut off from the grid either. The answer is somewhere in between. The government needs to set those rules today, and set them in a way that reflects the way the whole energy system in this country is changing.”
