The abnormal decline in the number of US public firms is often blamed on merger activity, private equity investments, and stock market regulations. We compare and quantify the effects of these channels on the evolution of the US listing gap in a unified framework. In the US, an extra 100 mergers...

The abnormal decline in the number of US public firms is often blamed on mergers, private equity, and stock market regulations. We compare and quantify the effects of these channels in a unified framework. In the US, an extra 100 mergers is associated with 22.01 additional missing public firms,...

The abnormal decline in the number of US public firms is often blamed on merger activity, private equity investments, and stock market regulations. We compare the effects of these channels in a unified framework. In the US, an extra 100 mergers is associated with 41.56 additional missing public...

By employing a novel, hand-collected sample of withdrawn and completed share-issue privatizations (SIPs) we show that both groups undergo comparable restructuring processes over the three years preceding the event. We employ matching procedures to explicitly control for the identified...

Growth equity (GE) funds have emerged as the third major private equity asset class for investors, alongside venture capital (VC) and buyout (B/O) funds, and as an important new source of external equity capital for private companies and entrepreneurs wishing to fund growth without surrendering...

This paper provides a survey of the trade-off theory of corporate capital structure. First we provide an analysis of an equilibrium version of the theory. The firm raises debt from an investor. Debt provides interest tax shields but raises the probability of costly bankruptcy. The model provides...

Using a comprehensive set of news stories, we find a stark difference in market responses to positive and negative price shocks accompanied by new information. When there is a news story about a firm, positive price shocks are followed by reversal, while negative ones result in drift. This is...

Tests using American data from 1970 to 2015 support the behavioral hypothesis that firms Cater to investor whims. We show that the standard tests cannot distinguish between the behavioral interpretation, and a rational model in which the firm optimally chooses investment, equity issuance, and...

Using a new measure of labor mobility instrumented by state-level shocks, I find that an increase in worker mobility negatively affects firms' average leverage and investment rates, but only in firms that rely on high-skill workers. I develop a dynamic model that provides an economic mechanism...

Despite extensive efforts, the relation between tax incentives and corporate capital structure is an open question. The 2017 US tax reform creates an opportunity to directly estimate this relation. The reform limits the tax advantage of debt for all firms except for small businesses with average...