"Business start-ups lack prior history and reputation, face high failure risk, and have highly concentrated ownership. The resulting information and incentive problems, combined with entrepreneurial private benefits of control, affect initial financing decisions. This paper examines...

We consider the long-run odds that narcotics users remain abstinent after methadone treatment. A flexible split-hazard specification that allows for individual-level differences in both the long-run probability of eventual relapse and the short-run timing of relapse is developed. The model is...

This paper empirically investigates high-yield bond default and call behavior using a competing risks hazard model that simultaneously estimates the impact of bond age, issue-specific characteristics and business conditions on both events. Results reveal nonmonotonic aging effects: default rates...

This paper argues that institutional investors may have a positive effect on stock prices. This effect realizes through different mechanisms: institutional investors reduce information asymmetries between firms and (other) investors, contribute to the liquidity of the company’s stock and...

This paper reviews the theory and recent empirical studies on privatization, with a special focus on the efforts made in the case of China. Over the last decade, the Chinese government has initiated major privatizations in an attempt to promote more efficiency and improve the financial and...

This paper surveys capital structure theories based on product characteristics and the structure of input and output markets. In this manner, it extends the work of Harris and Raviv (1991). Simultaneously, we relate capital structure to decisions in the input and output markets, such as...