How Corruption Affects the Bottom Line with Dr. Nerissa Brown, PhD CFE

We’re living in a world with a 24/7 news cycle dedicated to corruption. But how does corruption at the highest levels affect the bottom line of individual firms? On this week’s episode of Limit Up! we’re talking corruption with Dr. Nerissa Brown of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Gies College of Business.

Professor Brown’s latest research analyzes the effects of political corruption on firm value. She and her colleagues found that in districts with high level of corruption, the value of firms in those areas declined by 4%. Tune in to learn more about Professor Brown’s research and get this week’s MARKet Reaction.

• [00:16] – This week: Nerissa Brown, Associate Professor of Accountancy and Academic Director for the BSA/MAS Program in Accountancy at Gies College of Business
• [01:32] – MARKet Reaction with Mark Meadows
• [02:46] – Jeff Carter interview with Nerissa Brown
  • [04:35] – Nerissa’s academic path from Jamaica to Champaign
  • [06:00] – How Nerissa became interested in accountancy
  • [07:59] – Grey areas in accounting
  • [12:13] – Monitoring mechanisms and the consequences of political corruption
  • [15:24] – How Nerissa approached the research process
  • [18:27] – Does corruption curb innovation?
  • [21:20] – Russ Roberts’ EconTalk podcast
  • [21:46] – How corruption impacts Chicago companies and taxpayers
  • [26:03] – Are private firms affected the same as public ones?
  • [28:12] – Can political corruption be illustrated without bias in an asset & liability format?
  • [31:27] – Looking at how corruption is managed in the audit process
  • [33:53] – Civil disobedience within companies
  • [38:09] –Political Corruption and Firm Value in the U.S.: Do Rents and Monitoring Matter?
• [41:12] – Wrapping things up with Jack Pelzer

Nerissa Brown is Associate Professor of Accountancy and Academic Director for the BSA/MAS Program in Accountancy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Brown’s latest research is published in her paper, “Political corruption and firm value in the U.S.: Do rents and monitoring matter?” in the Journal of Business Ethics.

This episode of Limit Up! is hosted by Jeff Carter. Jeff is a general partner at West Loop Ventures. In April of 2007, he co-founded Hyde Park Angels and spearheaded the growth and development of one of the most active angel groups in the United States. He has consulted on the startup of several other angel groups. He is a former independent trader and member of the CME Board of Directors and was part of a small group that transformed CME from an open outcry exchange to the largest electronic exchange in the world. In 1998, CME was worth $182,134,000 in membership enterprise value. Today it’s worth $55 Billion.

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Podcast episode production by Dante32.