We examine whether bond ratings contain pricing relevant information, that is unavailable to investors form other sources, by focusing on investor reaction to rating changes that were not accompanied by any economic fundamental event - Moody's refinement of its rating system. This refinement was...

We test whether bond ratings contain pricing-relevant information by examining security price reactions to Moody's refinement of its rating system, which was not accompanied by any fundamental change in issuers' risks, was not preceded by any announcement, and was carried simultaneously for all...

The purpose of this book is to review the theory and empirical evidence regarding the impact of dividend policy on shareholder wealth. It cuts to the quick of such long-standing questions as Why do corporations pay dividends? and Why should investors care? With relevant anecdotes, surveys,...

Past literature suggests that success rates in professional basketball are independent of past performance and this has been interpreted as evidence that the commonly shared belief in Hot Hands (<italic>HH</italic>) is a cognitive illusion. This is often cited as evidence of biased decision making, even when...

In this note, a loss shared by the security holders of merging firms is pointed out: separate corporate entities provide double protection against future negative cash flows that are partof any production process (e.g., when customer or employee liabilities exceed future income), independent of...

We analyze a model in which firms signal their quality by using financial policies to commit to cash outflows. Two financial policies may be used: dividend and debt-service obligations. We find sufficient conditions for the informational equilibrium to entail concommitant use of both dividends...