We study the differences in the allocation of cash flow between Western European private and public firms. Public firms have a significantly higher investment-cash flow sensitivity than comparable private firms. These differences in investment-cash flow sensitivities are not due to more...

We measure the sensitivity of investment to changes in investment opportunities in the shipping industry and test whether this relation is moderated by ownership concentration. For a sample of 126 globally listed shipping firms, we find that investment in commercial shipping follows freight...

Companies that go public on global stock markets are not obliged to disclose earnings forecasts in their prospectuses. We use this fact to examine the shipping sector, where most firms issue earnings forecasts during the IPO process, and provide unique, international-level evidence. We find...

The valuation of start-up firms is challenging, yet highly relevant for entrepreneurs and financiers alike. We reverse-engineer fair-value multiples by comparing the firm value at the time of financing with the firm value at the time of exit. Our framework produces reliable valuation multiples...

We document high economy-wide correlations between the Equity Risk Premium (ERP) and the aggregate volume (rho=-0.69) and value (rho=-0.75) of patenting activity by public firms in the United States over the 1977-2018 period, contradicting Schumpeter's (1939) opportunity-costs hypothesis of...

Schumpeterian arguments of “creative destruction” predict that innovation is countercyclical. However, empirical findings demonstrate the contrary. We apply corporate finance principles to macro- and innovation economics and propose a “hurdle-rate theory of inventive procyclicality”....

We examine the role of a country's institutional framework for investment and financing activities. A country's financial structure, investor rights, and legal environment are important determinants of the relation between internal cash flow and firms' investment and financing behavior. Firms...

Closed-end ship funds (KG-funds) have been an important form of capital investment for private investors for many years. They also represented the most successful financing instrument of German tramp ship-owners in the past. In spite of their great importance for the economy overall, closed-end...

The old and simple investment strategy “Sell in May and Go Away” (also referred to as the “Halloween effect”) enjoys an unbroken popularity. Recent studies suggest that the Halloween effect even strengthened rather than weakened since its first publication by Bouman and Jacobsen (2002)....

This study examines whether the “Sell in May and Go Away” (or Halloween) trading strategy still offers an opportunity to earn abnormal returns. In contrast to prior studies, we consider sample periods during which adequate investment instruments were available for an effective implementation...