Craig Ruff

Evidence of Early Withdrawal in Time Deposit Portfolios

The embedded options found in some securities are known to have significant impact on product pricing, secondary market valuation, and risk measurement and management. The option to withdraw commonly found in bank deposits is one of the least studied of these. We help to fill this gap by examining the level and interest rate sensitivity of early withdrawals of retail time deposits using panel data from the Thrift Financial Report. We find that longer-maturity time deposit portfolios commonly experience early withdrawals at economically significant levels. Further, we find that depositors respond positively, with increased levels of early withdrawal, to the reinvestment incentive they face when new deposit rates rise. These findings increase our understanding of consumer behavior with regard to financial products and have significant implications for the competitive pricing of deposit products and the management of bank interest rate risk.

Evaluating Characteristics of Top and Bottom Performance: Online Versus In-Class

ABSTRACT This study compared the characteristics of students who excel (those in the top quarter of their class) and students who merely survive (bottom quarter of class) when attending a course either in-class or online. Student characteristics such as personal attributes (learning styles and gender), individual competence (grade point average), and major (nonquantitative or quantitative) may influence performance differently in each setting. This study shows that low-performing students, who typically need the most guidance in an online course, do in fact have traits that differ from those of low-performing students in-class. Accordingly, it is imperative that instructors develop proper materials and evaluation procedures aimed at helping low-achieving students succeed. However, because online education lacks face-to-face interaction, faculty may not realize that these differences exist.