Biography
Message
The game theorist view of the world is captured by Captain Jack Sparrow who says, “Me? I’m dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It’s the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly...stupid.” (from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)
Biography
After receiving his M.S. in Industrial Administration, Michael held management positions in a variety of operational roles for Sprint Communications from 1982-2004. In 2002, he received the company’s Sprint Values Excellence Leadership Award.
From 2005-2010, Michael pursued a Ph.D. in Finance and served as a teaching and research assistant at the University of Texas at Dallas. After receiving a Ph.D. in 2010, Michael joined the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand as a Lecturer in the School of Economics. In January of 2015, he was named a Senior Lecturer at the University.
Michael researches the effect of asymmetrical informed agents on decisions of firm management and market participants. He empirically tests theoretically motivated hypotheses using a wide variety of econometric techniques to unravel both causality and economic importance. For example, when facing a negative shock to earnings, he and his co-author found that small and young firms with low cash holdings reduced investment by 7% relative to small and young firms with high cash holdings. The implication is that small firms need to hold cash to maintain an investment program.
Michael is a member of the American Finance Association (AFA), the Financial Management Association (FMA) and the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (afaanz). Michael regularly presents research at international conferences. He lives in Plimmerton, New Zealand.