Alexander Núñez-Torres, Ph.D.

Office: Carman Hall, Room 376
Office Hours: T 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM & By Appt.
Phone: 718-960-8500
E-mail: alexander.nuneztorres@lehman.cuny.edu

Degrees and Sources of Degrees

• Ph.D., University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico
• B.S., Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (INTEC), Dominican Republic                                                   

Publications

• Núñez Torres, A. "Deposit market pwer, funding stability,and mortgage securitization." Finance Research Letters, June 2022. 
• Núñez Torres, A., Novoa Hoyos, A., Cao-Alvira, J. "On the financial Literacy, indebtedness, and wealth of Colombian households." Review of Development Economics, December 2020. 
• Núñez Torres, A., Grullon, G., Kaba, Y."When low beats high: Riding the sales seasonality permium." Journal of Financial Economics, November 2020. 
• Núñez Torres, A., Cao-Alvira, J. "On TARP and Agency Securitization." International Finance, August 2018. 

Presentations

• Núñez Torres, A., Gorokhovich, Y., Ngo-ngijol Banoum, B., Duran Urrea, D., Walia, D. (Panelist), Burt, K. (Panelist), Katz, S., Jordan, S., CUNY & SUNY OER Showcase, "Deepening Pedagogy with OER," CUNY, SUNY, Baruch College Vertical Campus Conference Center. (March 23, 2018).
• Núñez Torres, A. Grullon, G., Kaba, Y., 44th Annual Conference Eastern Economic Association 2018, "The Mystery of Sales Seasonality and Cross-Sectional Returns," Eastern Economic Association, Sheraton Boston Hotel. (March 2, 2018).
• Núñez Torres, A., Cao-Alvira, J., 43rd Annual Conference Eastern Economic Association 2017, "On TARP and Its Impact on the Mortgages Acquired by Fannie Mae," Eastern Economic Association, Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers. (February 25, 2017).
• Núñez Torres, A., Cao-Alvira, J., Southern Finance Association 2016 Annual Meeting, "On TARP and Its Impact on the Mortgages Acquired by Fannie Mae," Southern Finance Association, Hilton Hotel Sandestin Resort, Sandestin Florida. (November 18, 2016).

Research in Progress

• "Buy Low, Sell High: Riding the Sales Seasonality Premium"
  
  This paper shows that sorting stocks on sales seasonality predicts future abnormal returns. A long-short strategy of buying low-sales season stocks and shorting high-sales season stocks generates an annual alpha of 8.4%. Surprisingly, this strategy has become stronger over time, generating an annual alpha of almost 15% over the last decade. This seasonal effect predicts future stock returns in cross-sectional regressions, and it is independent of previously documented seasonal anomalies. Moreover, the alphas from this trading strategy cannot be explained by differences in stock market liquidity, systematic risk, asymmetric information, or financing decisions. Further tests indicate that this phenomenon might be partially driven by seasonal fluctuations in the level of investor attention.
  
  
• "Competition and Corporate Governance in Latin America" (On-Going).
  This paper investigates whether firms in noncompetitive industries benefit more from a positive governance shock than do firms in competitive industries. There are some evidence that firms in noncompetitive industries benefit more from a positive governance shock than do firms in competitive industries.
  
  
• "Debt Maturity Structure" (On-Going).
  There is some evidence that the debt maturity structure of firms stay constant in time, evidence explaining of the why of this phenomena is yet to be provided
  
  
• "Dodd-Franking Bigger Banks" (On-Going).
  This study investigates the Dodd-Frank effect over U.S. banks in terms of profitability and growth opportunities. Difference-in-differences models combined with Research Discontinuity Designs show that Dodd-Frank Act and its associated funding programs provided different effects depending of the size of the banks: a return ratio premium to the larger banks by means of a positive effect in their deposit growth rates, whereas the smaller banks experienced a negative effect in their return ratios and deposit growth rates. We also find a positive Dodd-Frank effect in terms of deposit growth and profitability for the Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs), which would be the main target of the legislation.
  
  
• "Financial Literacy and Colombian socioeconomic conditions."
  In this paper we evaluate the level of financial literacy of Colombian citizens and its effects on their socioeconomic conditions.
  
  
• "Mortgage Origination, Regional Differences and Financial Crises" (On-Going).
  Using a broad data set, detailing information on the origination of 9,076,925 30 year fixed interest mortgage loans generated during December 2001 and December 2013, we show regional and period mortgage-originating differences across the United States. Using descriptive analyses and multivariate approaches the objectives are threefold: First, we illustrate that the borrower risk factors the literature has included since the mid 60’s remain important in explaining the interest rate of a mortgage loan. Second, we show regional variances in the effect of loan risk characteristics on the interest rate; finally, we shed some light into the influence of 2008 subprime crisis on loan characteristics effect on mortgage rates.