We analyze the dual role of investment banks that provide advice to acquiring firms and act as underwriters on the securities issued to finance the acquisition. We find that a significant fraction (56 percent) of acquirers that issue public securities to finance their acquisitions also use their...

Using exogenous changes in the personal bankruptcy treatment of student loans as well as the level of student debt, we find that student debt has a negative effect on household retirement savings. This negative relation is present for younger and older individuals, and is larger for the latter...

Using a novel data set that links individual investment bankers to the acquisition deals they advise on, we find that individual investment bankers with greater deal experience are associated with higher acquisition returns and post-acquisition operating performance, particularly for acquirers...

We find significant variation in the prior stock returns of firms that dismiss their CEOs between 1996 and 2008. 49% of firms that dismiss their CEOs do so in the absence of negative industry-adjusted stock returns prior to dismissal (37% dismiss in the absence of negative raw returns). We find...

We study how patenting enhances customer capital and creates financial value. We find that firms with more and higher quality patents develop more customer capital as measured by better customer perceptions of product innovativeness and quality. To establish causality, we exploit the exogenous...

This dissertation consists of three essays covering corporate governance, agency costs and asset pricing. The recent spate of corporate governance scandals has led to the emergence of several commercial governance rating agencies which rate firms on their strength of governance mechanisms. In...

This paper investigates the relationship between the employee-friendly practices of the acquiring firm and the acquisition performance. I find a positive relationship between employee friendliness of the acquirer and acquisition performance. Employee friendliness of the acquirer is also...

We examine whether financial analysts understand the effect of unionization on firm earnings in the U.S. by examining a large panel dataset with firm-level unionization, adoptions of right-to-work (RTW) laws, and union certification elections. We find that forecast errors for unionized firms in...