Three separate issues are studied in the three chapters of this thesis in connection with liquidity and trading activity in financial markets. The first chapter investigates whether price discovery in the option market is enhanced on heavy option volume days. I find that it is; more...

This dissertation consists of three essays on empirical finance. In the first essay, I examine whether firms strategically substitute equity for debt to exploit market mispricing. I argue that previous studies reach conflicting conclusions about equity market timing because they neglect a...

My dissertation focuses on the incentives from executive stock and stock option ownership, how these incentives affect the welfare of firms different stakeholders, and how these stakeholders respond. In the first chapter, I investigate whether CEO stock and stock option ownership affects firms...

This dissertation consists of three essays. The first chapter examines the valuation effect of information asymmetry and the role of financial intermediaries as information gathering and processing experts. In a sample of cross-border mergers and acquisitions made by U.S. firms, we find that...

This dissertation studies price discovery processes, stock order imbalances, and trading patterns around seasoned equity offerings. First chapter studies how the volatility of a stock is affected by the trading activity of other stocks. I construct a model of price discovery process after a...