Thomas W. Downs

Thomas W. Downs
Associate Professor of Finance and Angus R. and David J. Cooper Endowed Faculty Excellence Fellow
Economics, Finance & Legal Studies
Office: 256 Alston Hall, 205-348-4590
Specialty Areas:
Valuation Issues, Financial Accounting, and Public Finance.
Education:
Florida State University (B.S. Biology, 1975), Purdue University (M.S. and Ph.D. in Economics, 1982).
Honors, Achievements and Affiliations:
Dr. Downs was the recipient years ago of the National Tax Association Distinguished Award for Applied Research. His publications have appeared in journals such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Accounting Research, National Tax Journal, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of Portfolio Management. One article in the Journal of Financial Research with Dr. Ingram was selected years ago the Best Paper of the Year. Dr. Downs s research on financial economic asset valuation has been heard at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, the Institute of Professional Accounting at the University of Chicago, and the American Institute for Economic Research in Great Barrington, Mass. His academic and professional interests include modeling economic effects of time periodicity and information on fundamental intrinsic values. Besides UA, Dr. Downs has taught at Boston College, Bond University Australia, UPR Puerto Rico, and CIMBA Italy. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Downs worked as plant quarantine Inspector for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He grew up a West Virginian.

Selected Publications

  • “Is There a Lottery Premium in the Stock Market?” (With Quan Wen.) Journal of Portfolio Management.  Fall 2001.
  • “Beta, Size, and Return.” (With Rob Ingram.) Journal of Financial Research.  Fall 2000.
  • "Security Market Values and Tax Adjusted Fundamental Values for Public Utility Property." National Tax Association Proceedings. 1993.
  • "Corporate Leverage and Non-Debt Tax Shields: Evidence on Crowding-Out." The Financial Review.  November 1993.
  • "The Analytical Derivation and Empirical Test of a Tax-Adjusted Fundamental Value Model." (With K. Shriver.) Journal of Accounting Research. Supplement 1992.
  • "The Asset Price Theory of Shareholder Reevaluations: Tests with the Tax Reforms of the 1980s." (With C. Demirgures.) The Financial Review. May 1992.
  • "Q and the Tax Bias Theory: The Role of Depreciation Tax Shields." The Journal of Public Economics.  February 1992.
  • "An Alternative Approach to Fundamental Analysis: The Asset Side of The Equation." Journal of Portfolio Management. Winter 1991.
  • "Predicting Stock Price Responses to Tax Policy Changes." (With H. Tehranian.) The American Economic Review.  December 1988.
  • "Tax Policy and Stock Prices."  (With P. Hendershott.) National Tax Journal. June 1987.
  • "Using the User Cost." Journal of Economics and Business. December 1986.
  • "The User Cost and Capital Budgeting."The Financial Review.  May 1986.