Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to determine the market-value relevance of frontier efficiency scores and to test hypotheses from corporate control and production theory by analyzing the market response to US property–liability (P–L) insurer acquisitions and divestitures....

This paper investigates economies of scope in the US insurance industry over the period 1993-2006. We test the conglomeration hypothesis, which holds that firms can optimize by diversifying across businesses, versus the strategic focus hypothesis, which holds that firms optimize by focusing on...

This dissertation studies the wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the US property-liability (P-L) insurance industry during the period 1993-2003 from the perspectives of the industry, the firms, and the stockholders. The first chapter examines efficiency and scale economies. It estimates...

We examine whether firms take advantage of brief windows of opportunity to time seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) when their equity is substantially overvalued given managers' private information. We find that firms experiencing larger IPO underpricing, larger stock price run-ups after the IPO,...

This paper examines the relationship between firm efficiency and stock market reaction to acquisitions and divestitures in the US property-liability insurance industry during the period 1997-2003. We use data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate firm cost and revenue efficiency. Abnormal...