Even though stock returns are not highly autocorrelated, there is a spurious regression bias in predictive regressions for stock returns related to the classic studies of <link rid="b49">Yule (1926)</link> and <link rid="b21">Granger and Newbold (1974)</link>. Data mining for predictor variables interacts with spurious regression bias. The...

Because of upward trends in research and development activity, accounting measures of financial distress have become less accurate. We document that (1) higher research and development spending increases the likelihood of misclassifying solvent firms, (2) adjusting for conservative accounting of...

This article tests for differences in execution costs among specialist firms for New York Stock Exchange listed securities. Execution cost differences provide a measure of the relative performance of specialist firms. The authors find a substantial difference in effective spreads and order...

This paper studies Nasdaq market makers' activities during the one and one-half hour preopening period. Price discovery during the preopening is conducted via price signaling as opposed to the auction used to open the NYSE or the continuous market used during trading. In the absence of trades,...

Substantial progress has been made in developing more realistic option pricing models. Empirically, however, it is not known whether and by how much each generalization improves option pricing and hedging. The authors fill this gap by first deriving an option model that allows volatility,...