We derive an expression for the critical stock price for the American put. We start by expressing the put price as an integral involving first-passage probabilities. This approach yields intuition for Merton's result for the perpetual put. We then consider the finite-lived case. Using (1) the...

While many studies find that option prices lead stock prices, J. A. Stephan and R. E. Whaley (1990) find that stocks lead options. The authors find no evidence that options, even deep out-of-the-money options, lead stocks. After confirming Stephan and Whaley's results, they show their results...

R. Geske and H. E. Johnson (1984) develop an equation for the American put price and obtain accurate prices using a method requiring quadrivariate normal integrals evaluated over an interval containing four equally spaced exercise points. The authors show that a modification of their method,...

This study examines stock and bond price reactions to dividend changes. The positive stock market response to dividend increases has several potential explanations, two of the more commonly discussed being information content and wealth redistribution between stockholders and bondholders. The...