Applying the framework of conditional event studies shows that equity issues reveal managers' private information about stock mispricing, which investors only partially discount into stock prices at the seasoned equity offering (SEO) announcement date. Negative abnormal returns occur as prices...

In this paper we provide new evidence that corporate financing decisions are associated with managerial incentives to report high equity earnings. Managers rely most heavily on debt to finance their asset growth when their future earnings prospects are poor, when they are under pressure due to...

We offer evidence of a new stylized feature of corporate financing decisions: the tendency of managers to rely more on debt financing when earnings prospects are poor. We term this 'leaning against the wind' and consider three possible explanations: market timing, precautionary financing, and...