Dialog, UA Faculty and Staff News

December 05, 2005

Professor Co-Authors Book Applying Business Principles to Terrorism Activity
Agrawal Co-Authors FMA’s ‘Best Paper’
Robert Horry Spins Wheel for RISE
Adcock Named to National Editorial Advisory Board
Worth Quoting

Professor Co-Authors Book Applying Business Principles to Terrorism Activity

By Chrishan Emonina

A new book co-authored by Dr. Walter Enders, a UA economics professor, applies business principles to terrorism and is receiving high praise from analysts and authorities on the war on terrorism.

The book, “The Political Economy of Terrorism,” was written by authors living on separate sides of the country. Enders, who holds the Bidgood Chair of Economics and Finance at UA, lives in Tuscaloosa. Co-author Dr. Todd Sandler is the Robert R. and Kathryn A. Dockson Professor of International Relations and Economics at the University of Southern California. The two met while working together at Iowa State University. Before their collaboration on the current book, Enders and Sadler had co-authored 20 articles on the subject of terrorism since the late 1980s.

“We applied business principles to terrorist groups and got some very interesting results,” Enders said. In 2004, the National Academy of Sciences awarded Enders and Sandler the Estes Prize for Behavioral Research Relevant to the Prevention of Nuclear War for their joint work on transnational terrorism. The pair used game theory and time series analysis to document the cyclic nature of terrorist attacks in response to defensive counteractions.

Enders said he hopes readers find the book an informative source on terrorism, noting that while the attacks of 9/11 brought terrorism to the forefront of Americans’ minds, terrorism has been happening outside the United States for many years. Enders said, as an economist, he believes people are rational in their behavior and terrorists are no exception.

“Terrorists act rationally. To win the war on terrorism we must assume that our opponents are going to act in their own self interest,” he said.

“The Political Economy of Terrorism,” published by Cambridge University Press, presents a widely accessible approach to the study of terrorism that combines economic methods with political analysis and realities. It combines economic methodology - theoretical and empirical - with political analysis and applies the result to the study of domestic and transnational terrorism. The book already is being called a “must read” for those people charged with conducting the nation’s war on terror.

Agrawal Co-Authors FMA’s ‘Best Paper’

By Bill Gerdes

A paper co-authored by Dr. Anup Agrawal, professor of finance and holder of the William A. Powell Chair of Finance and Banking at UA’s Culverhouse College of Commerce, received the “Best Paper” award at the recent Financial Management Association meeting in Chicago.

The paper, titled “Do Analyst Conflicts Matter? Evidence from Stock Recommendations,” was co-authored with Dr. Mark Chen, assistant professor of finance at the University of Maryland.

The paper won the “Financial Markets and Institutions” category, which is sponsored by Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae is a private, shareholder-owned company that works to make sure mortgage money is available for people in communities across America.

The paper by Agrawal and Chen looks at conflicts of interest with investment bankers and their affiliated brokerages. They find that the conflicts of interest do influence recommendations. However, the authors write that these conflicts and biased recommendations probably are known by investors and therefore the market place is not tricked. The authors note that, “Overall, our findings do not support the view that conflicted analysts are able to systemically mislead investors with optimistic stock recommendations.”

Agrawal received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Bombay, his M.B.A. from Xavier and his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh. His research has received more than 1,000 citations in academic papers and textbooks. He is ranked among the top one percent of all authors on the Social Science Research Network.

Agrawal’s research also has been the subject of feature stories in “Financial Times Deutschland” and “Wall Street Journal Online.” He has been a visiting faculty member at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the editorial boards of the “Journal of Corporate Finance,” the “Journal of Financial Research” and three other academic journals.

The Financial Management Association International was established in 1970 and has become the global leader in developing and disseminating knowledge about financial decision making. FMA’s members include academicians and practitioners across the world.

Robert Horry Spins Wheel for RISE

Former UA basketball player Robert Horry, now with the San Antonio Spurs, recently appeared on the game show “Wheel o f Fortune” as part of the show’s NBA Week. Horry played on behalf of UA’s RISE Program, winning $10,000 for the special needs preschool.

Adcock Named to National Editorial Advisory Board

Phillip B. Adcock, assistant vice president for University Advancement, has been named to the editorial advisory board of the “Journal of Gift Planning,” a quarterly publication of the National Committee on Planned Giving.

The role of the magazine is to address technical, cutting-edge issues in the field of charitable gift planning and to provide leadership in analyzing key issues. The editorial advisory board’s role is to select the subjects and to recruit the authors nationwide.

NCPG has a network of more than 130 local planned giving councils that provide communitybased education and networking for more than 11,000 gift planners. NCPG is the professional association for people whose work includes developing, marketing and administering charitable planned gifts. Those people include fund raisers for nonprofit institutions and consultants and donor advisers working in a variety of for-profit settings. The mission of NCPG is to increase the quality and quantity of charitable planned gifts by serving as the voice and professional resource for the gift planning community.

Adcock, who has been with UA since 2002, previously served as senior vice president with Robert F. Sharpe and Company, a nationally known charitable gift planning, consulting, training and communications firm. His clients included the U.S. Olympic Committee, Habitat for Humanity, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and Cal Farley’s Boys and Girls Ranches.

Adcock also served as the national director of major gifts and planned giving for the American Cancer Society. He pioneered market research in the society’s planned giving program and is credited with organizing and implementing the society’s first comprehensive national marketing strategy.

Worth Quoting

“It will make it harder for him in every possible way. Having the cloud of indictment over you in a campaign is devastating.” David Lanoue, chairman of the political science department, as quoted in the Montgomery Advertiser on Don Siegelman’s indictment during his gubernatorialcampaign.

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