Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Washington and Lee University
Department of Business Administration
PhD in Economics, Management, and Organization, 2022
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
MS in Management, Organization, and Business Economics, 2016
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
BA in Business Management Economics, 2012
University of California, Santa Cruz
About me
My primary research focus revolves around enhancing corporate accountability by identifying governance characteristics that contribute to accurate financial reporting. I’m particularly interested in how CEO characteristics impact organizational outcomes. I also work with a medical research group from the Universidad de Granada, conducting statistical analyses. This collaboration has led to a publication on melanoma treatment.
While I find fulfillment in advancing my research and initiating new projects, teaching is my true calling. The topics I teach directly stem from my research, often involving the analysis of real-world business data and the development of actionable business insights.
External profiles
Published research
CEO age, financial reporting quality, and the role of clawback provisions, with Miguel Angel García Cestona
Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting (2023)
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Motivated by rapidly increasing CEO age in the United States, the purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of CEO age on financial reporting quality, and consider the moderating role of clawback provisions. We use a data set of 18,492 U.S. firm-year observations from 2003-2019. Financial reporting quality is proxied with accruals-based and real activities earnings management measures, and with financial statement irregularities, measured by applying Benford’s law to financial statement line items. A number of sensitivity tests are conducted including the use of an instrumental variable. The results provide evidence that financial statement irregularities are more prevalent when CEOs are older and they suggest a complex relation between CEO age and real activities earnings management. The results also suggest that the effect of CEO age on financial reporting quality is moderated by the presence of clawback provisions which became mandatory for U.S.-listed firms in October 2022. This study is the first to our knowledge to consider the effect of CEO age on financial statement irregularities and earnings management. This study has important implications for stakeholders evaluating the determinants of financial reporting quality, for boards of directors considering CEO age limitations, and for policymakers considering mandating clawback provisions, which recently occurred in the United States.
Geopolitical Risk and Crowdfunding Performance, with Naif Alsagr, Douglas J. Cumming, and Ahmed Sewaid
Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money (2023) W&L article
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Developing markets around the world exhibit geopolitical risks (GPR) that impact the likelihood that the rewards will be delivered. This points towards a potential association between GPR and the likelihood of successful crowdfunding financing. This paper examines 1,672 fundraising attempts from the 19 developing countries listed in the GPR index. The data indicate that GPR is negatively associated with the likelihood of crowdfunding success. Further, the evidence shows that entrepreneurs can moderate the costs of GPR via signaling and campaign disclosures. Implications for policymakers and entrepreneurs are discussed.
Institutional ownership, earnings management, and earnings surprises: Evidence from 39 years of U.S. data, with Miguel Angel García Cestona
Journal of Economics Finance and Administrative Science (2023) W&L article
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As the influence of institutional investors over managerial decision-making grows, so does the importance of understanding the effect of institutional investor ownership (IO) on firm outcomes. We take a comprehensive approach to studying the effect of IO on earnings management (EM). We study the relation between IO and EM using a sample of 59,503 listed U.S. firm-year observations from 1981-2019. We proxy EM with earnings surprises and with accruals based and real activities measures. We test for nonlinear relations and analyze changes resulting from the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act. Our findings support a positive IO-EM relation overall, but show that the relation is dynamic and heavily context-dependent with evidence of nonlinearity. We also find evidence that IO affects accruals-based EM positively and real activities EM negatively. To our knowledge, this is the first study of the IO-EM relation to consider evidence of nonlinearity in the U.S. context, measuring changes to the relation over time, and with the use of several measures of EM.
IMP3 immunohistochemical expression is related with progression and metastases in xenografted and cutaneous melanomas
Pathobiology (2023)
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Insulin-like growth factor-II messenger RNA (mRNA)-binding protein-3 (IMP3) over-expression is a predictor of tumor recurrence and metastases in some types of human melanoma. Our objective is to evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of IMP3 and other molecules related to tumor prognosis in melanoma-xeno-tumors undergoing treatment. We inoculated A375 and G361 human melanoma cell lines into NOD/SCID gamma mice. We assessed the immunohistochemical expression of IMP3, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, PARP1, HIF-1α, and the proliferation marker Ki-67. Additionally, we performed a retrospective study including 114 histological samples of patients diagnosed with malignant cutaneous Superficial Spreading Melanoma, and Nodular Melanoma with at least five years of follow-up. Most morphological and immunohistochemical features show statistically significant differences between the two cell lines. All three treatments reduced the cell proliferation evaluated by the Ki-67 nuclear antigen (P=0.000) and reduced the number of metastases (P=0.004). In addition, the tumor volumes reduced in comparison with the control groups, 31.74% for RT+MSCs in the A357 tumor cell line, and 89.84% RT+MSCs in the G361 tumor cell line. We also found that IMP3 expression is associated with greater tumor aggressiveness and was significantly correlated with cell proliferation, the number of metastases, and reduced expression of adhesion molecules. The combined treatment of RT+MSCs on xenografted melanomas reduces tumor size, metastases frequency and the EMT/PARP1 metastatic phenotype. This treatment also reduces the expression of molecules related to cellular proliferation (Ki-67), molecules that facilitate the metastatic process (E-cadherin) and molecules related with prognosis (IMP3).
Financial Reporting Quality and the Effects of CFO Gender and Board Gender Diversity, with Miguel Angel García Cestona
Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting (2021)
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The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of CFO gender, board gender diversity and the interaction of both factors on financial reporting quality (FRQ) proxied by restatements. Restatements indicate inaccurate financial reporting. We use fixed effects conditional logistic regression models to compare firms with and without restatements matched by size, industry, and year. Our unique matched–pair sample consists of 546 listed US firms from the period 2005–2016. Our results provide evidence that restatements are less likely when the CFO is a woman and when a higher proportion of women serve on the board of directors (BOD). Considering the interaction effects, we find evidence that women on the BOD are more effective at reducing restatement likelihood when the CFO is also a woman. And that, although female CFOs reduce restatement likelihood generally, they have no statistically significant effect on restatement likelihood when the BOD is all-male. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to consider how FRQ is affected by the interaction effects of CFO gender and board gender diversity. The findings corroborate upper echelons theory and extend the understanding of the effects of managerial gender diversity at a time when firms face growing pressure to increase gender diversity at the highest levels. The unique sample, methodology and findings provide new insights into the impact of gender on FRQ that has important policy implications.
Teaching
Fundamentals of Business Analytics, 2022 – present
Washington and Lee University
Text Analytics for Business Insights, 2022 – present
Washington and Lee University
Business Economics, 2020 – 2021
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Information Systems, Data Management Section, 2018 – 2020
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
