Executive Order Number One, January 27, 2007

Orders that the United States Flag be flown at half-staff to honor any member of Iowa National Guard, Iowa Air National Guard or an Iowa resident serving as a member of the United States Armed Forces who is killed in the line of duty.

Midwest Regional Rail Passenger Initiative Status Report December 2006

This report is submitted as required per Code of Iowa section 327J.3(5), "The director shall report annually to the general assembly concerning the development and operation of the midwest regional rail system and the state's passenger rail service." The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative (MWRRI) is a nine-state effort to develop an implementation plan for a 3,000-mile, high-speed rail system hubbed in Chicago. Studies done since 1996 have concluded that such a regional system, including a line from Chicago to Omaha through Davenport, Iowa City and Des Moines, is viable. Most of the system would be upgraded to allow 110 mile-per-hour service. Some low volume lines, including the Iowa portions, would be upgraded for 79 mile-per-hour service. The nine-state coalition released an updated 2004 executive report for the system. As reported, the updated cost estimate for the Chicago to Omaha corridor, which includes a branch to Quincy, Ill., is $638 million for infrastructure and $167 million for rolling stock. These costs are higher than first estimated in 1998 and are given in 2002 dollars, (not adjusted for the cost of inflation). Operating subsidies would be required during an extended start-up phase. The allocation of these subsidy costs among the various states has not been determined, and is still a subject for analysis and negotiation. Little progress on implementation is expected unless a federal funding package is passed for passenger rail initiatives. Continued congressional discussion on policy directions relative to Amtrak clouds the issue of passenger rail funding. However, Congress is expected to address passenger rail issues and funding in 2007. Participation of the Iowa Department of Transportation in the MWRRI is authorized under Iowa Code section 327J.3.

Audit report on a review of selected general and application controls over the University of Northern Iowa’s Modern Executive Management Financial Information System (MEMFIS) human resources and payroll modules for the period May 22, 2006 through June 12, 2006.

Audit report on a review of selected general and application controls over the University of Northern Iowa’s Modern Executive Management Financial Information System (MEMFIS) human resources and payroll modules for the period May 22, 2006 through June 12, 2006.

Executive Order Number Two, February 28, 2007

Orders that the deadline for individual Iowa taxpayers who are farmers to pay their 2006 individual income tax is extended until March 15, 2007.

Executive Order Number Three, June 21, 2007

Orders that the use of E-85 fuel in the state's flexible-fuel vehicles shall be increased to at least 60% of fuel purchases, and instructs the Office of Energy Independence and DAS to develop a "State Government E-85 Use Plan .

Iowa Utilities Board Fiscal Year 2006 Regulatory Plan Pursuant to Executive Order Nine

Regulatory Plan for Fiscal Year 2005

Iowa Utilities Board Fiscal Year 2007 Regulatory Plan Pursuant to Executive Order Nine

Regulatory Plan for Fiscal Year 2007

Iowa Utilities Board Fiscal Year 2008 Regulatory Plan Pursuant to Executive Order Nine

Regulatory Plan for Fiscal Year 2008

Three essays in dynamic corporate finance

Summary Throughout my thesis, I elaborate on how real and financing frictions affect corporate decision making under uncertainty, and I explore how firms time their investment and financing decisions given such frictions. While the macroeconomics literature has focused on the impact of real frictions on investment decisions assuming all equity financed firms, the financial economics literature has mainly focused on the study of financing frictions. My thesis therefore assesses the join interaction of real and financing frictions in firms' dynamic investment and financing decisions. My work provides a rationale for the documented poor empirical performance of neoclassical investment models based on the joint effect of real and financing frictions on investment. A major observation relies in how the infrequency of corporate decisions may affect standard empirical tests. My thesis suggests that the book to market sorts commonly used in the empirical asset pricing literature have economic content, as they control for the lumpiness in firms' optimal investment policies. My work also elaborates on the effects of asymmetric information and strategic interaction on firms' investment and financing decisions. I study how firms time their decision to raise public equity when outside investors lack information about their future investment prospects. I derive areal-options model that predicts either cold or hot markets for new stock issues conditional on adverse selection, and I provide a rational approach to study jointly the market timing of corporate decisions and announcement effects in stock returns. My doctoral dissertation therefore contributes to our understanding of how under real and financing frictions may bias standard empirical tests, elaborates on how adverse selection may induce hot and cold markets in new issues' markets, and suggests how the underlying economic behaviour of firms may induce alternative patterns in stock prices.

On the closed-form approximation of short-time random strike options

In this paper we propose a general technique to develop first and second order closed-form approximation formulas for short-time options withrandom strikes. Our method is based on Malliavin calculus techniques andallows us to obtain simple closed-form approximation formulas dependingon the derivative operator. The numerical analysis shows that these formulas are extremely accurate and improve some previous approaches ontwo-assets and three-assets spread options as Kirk's formula or the decomposition mehod presented in Alòs, Eydeland and Laurence (2011).

Treatment options related to clinical type

Treatment of status epilepticus (SE) consists in the sequential administration of three lines of drugs. The first is represented by benzodiazepines, and enjoys quite robust scientific evidence. The second one includes (phos-) phenytoin, valproate, phenobarbital, and increasingly levetiracetam, but its rationale is relatively scarce. The third line is pharmacological coma induction with barbiturates, propofol, or midazolam, which lacks the support of prospective, controlled studies and is reserved for refractory SE. Several other drugs are used after failure of this scheme, including newer antiepileptic compounds, other medications, and non-pharmacological approaches; no comparative assessment of their respective role has been conducted. It is important to tailor this relatively simple protocol to each particular situation; the supposed advantages of coma induction should be balanced with the morbidity related to prolonged mechanical ventilation. Awide consensus exists to treat generalized-convulsive SE and SE in coma soon and aggressively, to prevent a dismal outcome. On the other side, it is unclear if complex-partial SE induces permanent neuronal damage, and absence SE has an excellent prognosis: it appears therefore advisable not to proceed automatically to coma induction in these cases. SE related to post-anoxic coma has generally a poor prognosis, but some selected cases seem to be amenable to a better outcome if treated. SE prognosis depends on etiology, the biological background including age and comorbidities, and, possibly, treatment; each of these points deserves to be specifically addressed. A simple prognostic score has been recently validated and, helping to orient early treatment strategies and improve SE management.

Option pricing under stochastic volatility and stochastic interest rate in the Spanish case

Among the underlying assumptions of the Black-Scholes option pricingmodel, those of a fixed volatility of the underlying asset and of aconstantshort-term riskless interest rate, cause the largest empirical biases. Onlyrecently has attention been paid to the simultaneous effects of thestochasticnature of both variables on the pricing of options. This paper has tried toestimate the effects of a stochastic volatility and a stochastic interestrate inthe Spanish option market. A discrete approach was used. Symmetricand asymmetricGARCH models were tried. The presence of in-the-mean and seasonalityeffectswas allowed. The stochastic processes of the MIBOR90, a Spanishshort-terminterest rate, from March 19, 1990 to May 31, 1994 and of the volatilityofthe returns of the most important Spanish stock index (IBEX-35) fromOctober1, 1987 to January 20, 1994, were estimated. These estimators wereused onpricing Call options on the stock index, from November 30, 1993 to May30, 1994.Hull-White and Amin-Ng pricing formulas were used. These prices werecomparedwith actual prices and with those derived from the Black-Scholesformula,trying to detect the biases reported previously in the literature. Whereasthe conditional variance of the MIBOR90 interest rate seemed to be freeofARCH effects, an asymmetric GARCH with in-the-mean and seasonalityeffectsand some evidence of persistence in variance (IEGARCH(1,2)-M-S) wasfoundto be the model that best represent the behavior of the stochasticvolatilityof the IBEX-35 stock returns. All the biases reported previously in theliterature were found. All the formulas overpriced the options inNear-the-Moneycase and underpriced the options otherwise. Furthermore, in most optiontrading, Black-Scholes overpriced the options and, because of thetime-to-maturityeffect, implied volatility computed from the Black-Scholes formula,underestimatedthe actual volatility.

Executive Order Number Five, October 30, 2007

Creates the Youth Race and Detention Task Force.

Executive Order Number Four, October 26, 2007

Orders that State Agencies achieve and maintain a diverse workforce in state government.

Illusory correlation in the remuneration of chief executive officers: It pays to play golf, and well

Illusory correlation refers to the use of information in decisions that is uncorrelated with the relevantcriterion. We document illusory correlation in CEO compensation decisions by demonstrating thatinformation, that is uncorrelated with corporate performance, is related to CEO compensation. We usepublicly available data from the USA for the years 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004 to examine the relationsbetween golf handicaps of CEOs and corporate performance, on the one hand, and CEO compensationand golf handicaps, on the other hand. Although we find no relation between handicap and corporateperformance, we do find a relation between handicap and CEO compensation. In short, golfers earnmore than non-golfers and pay increases with golfing ability. We relate these findings to the difficultiesof judging compensation for CEOs. To overcome this and possibly other illusory correlations inthese kinds of decisions, we recommend the use of explicit, mechanical decision rules.