Cris de la Torre

Contact Information

Education

• JD, University of Colorado-Boulder. Area of Study: Law
• PhD, University of Texas-Austin. Area of Study: Finance
• MBA, University of Texas-El Paso. Area of Study: Finance
• BS, University of Notre Dame. Area of Study: Civil Engineering

Professional/Academic Experience

• Professor of Finance, University of Northern Colorado. (2011 - Present).

Licensures and Certifications

• Attorney at Law - State of Colorado. (1997 - Present).

Research/Areas of Interest

Research in Progress

• "Mnemonics, M&M’s and Capital Structure:  A Teaching Note" (On-Going).
  A mnemonic is a tool to help remember facts or a large amount of information. It can be a song, rhyme, acronym, image, or a phrase to help remember a list of facts in a certain order.  This short teaching note presents a classroom mnemonic that helps students better understand the Modigliani and Miller 1958 capital structure irrelevancy result.  It also provides a fun time for the instructor as it allows a legitimate reason to eat candy in the classroom

• "Capital Budgeting and the Efficient Market Hypothesis: Why we are all dead in the long run" (On-Going). The efficient market hypothesis (“EMH”) has long had an impact on investment philosophy to the point that many believe that it only applies to stock and other equity investments. This paper attempts to extend the EMH to the firm level by examining the process of allocating resources known as capital budgeting. Too often we neglect that the EMH should apply to the root cause of value, i.e. the acquisition of assets, be it by project or merger. By adopting the EMH to capital budgeting, we argue that firms, in the long run should not survive, as longterm survival is akin to being able to consistently beating the market. Likewise, being able to consistently pick merger targets that provide wealth is also a violation of the EHH. Our hope is to bring a better understanding of the EMH by applying it to markets other than the traditional stock market.

• "Disassembling the Replacement Analysis in Capital Budgeting: A Teaching Note" (On-Going). When teaching capital budgeting, specifically the analysis with regard to replacement projects, there comes a point when the instructor has to explain why the market value of the old machine is recognized, as is the continued depreciation on the old machine. Typically, the response is, “Well we want to capture the true effect of replacing the old machine and its true impact.” This paper disassembles the analysis into the sale of the old machine and the purchase of the new project separately to help clarify the process to students.
• "HOA and Taxes Redux: An Update" (On-Going). In 2003 and 2004 the authors wrote two papers dealing with tax issues and HOAs. Since that time there have been a number of private letter rulings that have been issued by the Report Generated on October 3, 2016 Page 3 of 6 IRS. This paper will review several of these rulings and their impact on HOAs.
• "Money and Concentration of Wealth: why it will only get worse" (On-Going). In the recent past much has been said about the increasing concentration of wealth not only in the U.S., but all across developed nations. Three-years ago there were demonstrations in New York City and other places complaining about the “one-percenters.” The question remains, what can be done to either slow down the phenomenon, or even reverse course. This article will argue that historically and more importantly realistically, nothing will reverse the trend. Taxes and other government actions will only slow down events. Inevitably, money and improved technology provides the easy transfer and storage of wealth resulting in accelerating concentration of wealth.
• "Tax Liens, Liquidity and the Secondary Market: How recent developments are making tax liens more accessible." (On-Going). Similar to other markets, the tax liens market has recently been aided by the creation of a secondary trading platform. Given the historic illiquidity of tax liens, a well-functioning, liquid secondary market will only serve to accelerate the growth of this investment segment. This paper briefly reviews the essence of a tax lien, the environment of exchanging tax liens prior to creation of the secondary market, and an overview of how the market works. In addition, this article will discuss how the market reacted to recent extreme volatilities in the stock market and the implications for the tax lien market as a potential safe haven for investors.
• "The Developer’s Dilemma: How to Pay for Infrastructure" (On-Going). Historically developers borrowed the necessary money to complete infrastructure improvements and then priced the expenditures into the cost of the residential lot. This required the developer to secure the funds from a bank or other lending institution with the expectation that the loans would be paid as the lots were sold. More recently, developers have used a bonding mechanism, sometimes in the form of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) whereby the money is raised by a bond issue, backed by the development and paid by the annual mill levy as part of the real estate taxes. This paper examines the evolution of how developers raised the money for improvements, and critically looking at the reasons for the shift.
• "Understanding The Discounted Payback technique: A teaching note" (On-Going). Too often academic practitioners disparage capital budgeting techniques such as the discounted payback (“DPB”) method as being too simplistic to help make capital allocation decisions. This paper attempts to compare the DPB to the IRR, and the modified IRR so the reader can be more acquainted with the full possibilities of better using the DPB as means of ranking and selecting projects.

Publications/Creative Works

Juried Journal Article

• McClatchey, C., de la Torre, C. The intended and unintended effects of Dodd-Frank on mortgage broker compensation. Journal of Real Estate Practice and Education, 16(2), 141-160.
• de la Torre, C., Martinez, R. (2014). Too Big to Fail: Suggestions to limit the future fallout. International Review of Accounting, Banking and Finance.
• Martinez, R., de la Torre, C. (2017). European Union-Latin American Trade: Current Conditions and Perspectives. Journal of Business Diversity, 17(3).

 

Conference (Full Paper) Proceeding

• de la Torre, C., Martinez, R. (2018). Conference Proceeding: Disassembling the Replacement Analysis in Capital Budgeting: A Teaching Note. Academy of Financial Services.
• de la Torre, C., Martinez, R., A. (2017). Understanding the Discounted Payback technique and its uses for Small Business.

Honors and Awards

• MCB Finance Professor of the Year, MCB Student Council. (May 2018)

• MCB Finance Professor of the Year, MCB Student Council. (2014)

• MCB Finance Professor of the Year, MCB Student Council. (2013)

• MCB Finance Professor of the Year, MCB Student Council. (2012).

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