We use forward-looking and exogenous measures of output price uncertainty to examine the effect of price uncertainty on firm-level capital investment, risk management, and debt issuance. The effects of uncertainty vary significantly by firm size. When faced with high price uncertainty, large...

We use a change in US trade policy, which eliminated potential tariff increases on Chinese imports, to examine the effect of resolution of trade policy uncertainty on merger and acquisition (M&A) activity and shareholder value of acquiring and target firms. After this policy change, industries...

We examine the joint optimization of financial leverage and irreversible capacity investment in a real options framework with risky debt and endogenous interest costs. Higher capacity, ceteris paribus, increases operating leverage and default probability, but lowers ex post adjustment costs and...

"In this paper, we investigate whether U.S. bank holding companies (BHCs) with strong and independent risk management functions have lower enterprise-wide risk. We hand-collect information on the organizational structure of the risk management function at the 74 largest publicly-listed BHCs, and...

How does insider ownership affect shareholder value? We answer this question by examining how the marginal valuation of new investment projects announced by Indian firms varies with the level of insider holding in the firm, and other firm and project characteristics. We find that among projects...

We construct a Risk Management Index (RMI) to measure the strength and independence of the risk management function at bank holding companies (BHCs). U.S. BHCs with higher RMI before the onset of the financial crisis have lower tail risk, lower non-performing loans, and better operating and...

In most venture capital financed firms, neither the venture capitalist nor the entrepreneur has exclusive authority over some of the key corporate decisions. For example: the decision whether the firm should undertake an IPO or be sold to a larger rival usually requires the approval of both the...

We analyze how entrepreneurial firms choose between two funding institutions: banks, who monitor less intensively and face liquidity demands from their own investors, and venture capitalists, who can monitor more intensively but face a higher cost of capital due to the liquidity constraints that...

In most venture capital financed firms, neither the VC nor the manager has exclusive authority over some of the key corporate decisions. For example: the decision whether the firm should undertake an IPO or be sold to a larger rival usually requires the approval of both the manager and the VC....

We analyze how optimal contracting between an entrepreneur and a financial institution depends on the cash flow characteristics of the entrepreneur's firm. Because the entrepreneur prefers continuing the firm over liquidating it, and aggressive continuation strategies over conservative...