This thesis explores the economics of corporate investment and investigates how problems of asymmetric information and strategic interaction influence the efficiency of investment behavior. I present theoretical work and empirical results from a survey of European chief financial executives.

The purpose of this research is to explore the motivation of business group firmsto adopt pyramidal ownership structures. The traditional approach claims that pyramidsare useful in tunneling resources to other affiliates by transferring value to firms withhigh cash flow rights of controlling...

Using novel data on European firms, this paper investigates the relationship between business groups and innovation. Controlling for various firm characteristics, we find that group affiliates are more innovative than standalones. We examine several hypotheses to explain this finding, focusing...

Using hand-collected data on divisional managers at the S&P 500 firms, we provide one of the first studies of their role in internal capital budgeting. Divisional managers with connections to the CEO receive more capital. Managers’ informal connections, such as social ties to the CEO, outweigh...

This dissertation consists of two studies related to internal capital markets and bank relationship using Japanese corporate spin-offs. The first study analyzes the relation between internal capital markets and banks by examining 137 Japanese corporate spin-offs created between the years 2001...

Das erste Paper behandelt den Survivorship Bias bei Aktienfonds. Dieser stellt eine systematische Überschätzung der Performance dar, die entsteht wenn in der Fondsgruppe nur die „Überlebenden“ berücksichtigt werden. Dies ist seit Grinblatt und Titman (1989) bekannt und seitdem in vielen...

In two unrelated papers, we examine different aspects of mutual fund performance and otherissues. In the first chapter, we look at exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and how they differ fromindex funds in performance and tracking error. Using daily data and a more comprehensivesample than past...

This paper proposes a new method of fund rating based on the cross-sectional distribution of fund performance measured by alpha. This distribution-based fund rating model is more flexible and provides more interesting results than current commercial fund rating method used by Morningstar. Unlike...

In two unrelated papers, we examine different aspects of mutual fund performance and other issues. In the first chapter, we look at exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and how they differ from index funds in performance and tracking error. Using daily data and a more comprehensive sample than past...