In a recent article, F. Black introduces the concept of noise trading, defin ed as trading on noise as if it were information. He asserts that suc h trading must be a significant factor in securities markets, but doe s not explain why investors would rationally trade on noise. The goal of this...

The book-to-market effect is often interpreted as evidence of high expected returns on stocks of "distressed" firms with poor past performance. We dispute this interpretation. We find that while a stock's future return is unrelated to the firm's past accounting-based performance, it is strongly...

This paper investigates the dynamic relation between net individual investor trading and short-horizon returns for a large cross-section of NYSE stocks. The evidence indicates that individuals tend to buy stocks following declines in the previous month and sell following price increases. We...

We develop equilibrium models of exhaustible resource markets with endogenous extraction choices and prices. Our analysis demonstrates how adjustment costs can generate oil and gas forward price dynamics with two factors, consistent with the behavior these commodities exhibit in the <link rid="b30">Schwartz and...

Firm sizes and book-to-market ratios are both highly correlated with the average returns of common stocks. Eugene F. Fama and Kenneth R. French (1993) argue that the association between these characteristics and returns arise because the characteristics are proxies for nondiversifiable factor...

This paper explores the linkages between stock price efficiency, the choice between private and public financing, and the development of capital markets in emerging economies. Generally, the advantage of public financing is high if costly information is diverse and cheap to acquire, and if...

This paper describes the firm's decision to borrow short- term versus long-term and shows how the introduction of interest rate swaps affects this choice. The model shows that in the absence of a swap market, interest rate uncertainty can lead firms to substitute long-term for short-term...

This paper investigates the determinants of leveraged buyout activity by comparing firms that have implemented leveraged buyouts to those that have not. Consistent with the free cash flow theory, the authors find that firms that initiate leveraged buyouts can be characterized as having a...