We survey the literature on payout policy, with a particular emphasis on developments in the past two decades. The cross-sectional empirical evidence for the traditional motivations behind firms paying out (agency, signaling, and taxes) is most persuasive with regard to agency considerations....

We study the extent to which firms rely on the capital markets to fund their payouts. We find that 42% of firms that pay out capital also initiate debt or equity issues in the same year, resulting in 32% of aggregate payouts being externally financed. Most firms that simultaneously raise and...

Firms enjoy wide discretion in their disclosure of patent-related events, which investors generally view as "good news" announcements. This study examines patent disclosure behavior before earnings announcements in light of managers incentives to avoid the stock price-related consequences of...

This thesis empirically studies the determinants of CEO employment contracts and the impacts of such agreements on managerial investment decisions. As of 2005, approximately half of S&P 500 CEOs had employment contracts. A typical contract protects the CEO by decreasing the probability he will...

This thesis explores two issues regarding corporate equity issuance. The first chapter studies the timing of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) at the firm level. Descriptive statistics formulated using US data from 1975 to 2004 show that when firms return to the equity market, they tend to do so...

Stock returns are a significant predictor of future capital investment growth and even predict investment growth better than Tobins q. Since the capital investment decision process is fundamental to corporate finance, understanding the potential factors that drive the ability of returns to...

This dissertation consists of three essays on CEO replacement in turnaround situations. The first essay aims to understand the antecedents of CEO dismissal in turnaround situations. I develop a model of CEO dismissal as a social framing contest, in which key plays try to convince and mobilize...