Faculty Engages in Critical Research
RESEARCH AIMS TO BUILD ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL’
Management Professor James Avey’s research is all about giving managers the tools they need for themselves and their teams to flourish in organizations. He has published approximately 50 empirical peer-reviewed articles and has delivered research presentations across the world with one mission: for managers to exhort what is right, working, and effective about their teams so they can become even better. This work represents an integration of the real empirical science from positive psychology, and how it is applied to the workplace. Avey’s research moves beyond economic and human capital to develop leaders to build employees’ positive psychological capital for sustainable and resilient performance across context, industry, and culture. He emphasizes that he does “not deal with the challenges of economic capital or technology, in general; only people, strategic leadership, and implementation.” STUDY: TAX DIRECTORS’ DEPARTURES, GENDERS AFFECT STOCK VALUES Assistant Professor of Accounting Mengyu Ma’s research has revealed that the stock market values tax directors’ departure and gender. She and her colleagues have identified positive market reactions to the announcement of tax director departures. “Our results further show lower cumulative abnormal returns for female tax directors than for male tax directors,” she said, adding that the study has implications for practitioners in terms of the selection of tax directors. In a different study, Ma and her co-researchers found companies that hire auditor tax experts engage in a higher level of tax avoidance. The results also show that this association is more pronounced among firms that have subsidiaries registered in tax havens. BECU’s strategy for the post-secondary philanthropy program is to focus on underserved populations, including rural residents, women, Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC), and the LGBTQIA+ community. The primary objective, Held said, is to increase financial literacy among underrepresented groups so they will see the value of staying in school. BECU and CWU share the belief that education in any form improves people’s lives over the long term. “We want students to realize the value of financial freedom, and education is one of those crossroads in life that helps determine if they will have that freedom,” Held said.
ANALYSIS SHOWS PROGRAM LOWERED TUITION FOR IN-STATE STUDENTS Assistant Professor Tennecia Dacass’ research focuses on the impact of labor market regulations on immigrants and the influence of public policy on children and families. Since 2022, her research has spanned diverse topics, including the sustainability of rare earth mineral markets, the intersection of gender and ethnicity in corporate governance, and the relationship between tuition and student loans. Dacass and her co-author have studied the impact of Washington State’s College Affordability Program, initiated in 2015, on the student loan burdens of undergraduate students. The program lowered tuition for resident full-time undergraduate students at public colleges and universities over two consecutive academic years. Their goal was to provide policymakers with insights on how to prevent potential future student loan crises. Assistant Professor Tennecia Dacass was named as one of the nation’s Top 200 Black Scholars in the economics profession in a research study that appeared this winter in The Review of Black Political Economy. BECU Program Aims to Help Students Stay in School
FEMALE, MINORITY BOARD MEMBERS LEAD TO HIGHER ESG SCORES In another recent research project, Dacass explored the influence of women and minority corporate board members on a company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings. Using director-level data and instrumental variables regression analysis, she and her colleagues discovered that the presence of female board members results in an improvement in a firm’s ESG rating. They also learned that both male and female minority board members are linked to firms with relatively high ESG scores.
Associate Professor of Management James Avey
‘SPECIAL PURPOSE’ SALES TAXES CREATE DISPARITY
Associate Professor of Accounting Fabio Ambrosio’s research attempts to explore and explain the ever- increasing presence of local option sales taxes and “special purpose” local option sales taxes in the composition of the tax portfolio of local governments. His recent research has shown that the stated “special purpose” does not meaningfully influence a county’s decision to impose an extra local sales tax. Instead, local sales tax rates are on the rise simply because a county can afford to do so — because it has the population, the income, and the market activity. As a result, sales tax revenue is flowing to market- dominant counties, not necessarily counties that need that extra revenue for those special purposes.
Assistant Professor of Accounting Mengyu Ma
The CWU College of Business is always looking for ways to provide higher education pathways to as many people as possible. But we can’t do it alone. That’s where BECU’s post-secondary philanthropy program comes in, contributing funding to colleges and technical schools around the state. “Our commitment is to help underserved, low-income students build financial literacy and stay in school,” said Tisha Held, Philanthropy and BECU Foundation Manager. “We’re always looking at how we can support rural students and those from migrant communities. That’s been a major focus of this program, and we want to continue to build upon the progress we have already made.”
Held explained that the post-secondary philanthropy program was introduced about five years ago, and the funds are distributed to institutions on both sides of the mountains based on specific needs. BECU doesn’t like to assign a dollar figure to its contributions; instead, the organization determines funding amounts annually, based on each institution’s individual needs. “Every school is very specific and nuanced with regard to what their needs are for a particular academic year,” Held said. “We try to build relationships with our partners to find out what their students need and what their communities need. As long as the money is going toward educational needs, we try to support those efforts.”
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