We investigate corporate bond returns for the period 1838-1939 by using a unique new sample from the Brussels Stock Exchange. The value-weighted annualized total rate of return, net of defaults and taxes, is 4.33% in nominal terms and 2.81% in real terms. Estimates of average returns show that...

With two news-based measures on war, I document that managers mitigated war risk through dividend cuts, arguably to establish a war chest. Moreover, I find that companies postponed their initial public offerings and that foreign companies were more likely to delist after the onset of wars....

This paper uses completely new data to study the variations in beta when it deviates from the constancy assumption presumed by the market model. The concentration of the various researches on beta based on post 1926 data makes the 19th century Brussels Stock Exchange (BSE) data a very good...