This paper examines the cross-sectional relation between leverage and future stock returns. Prior research documents a puzzling negative correlation. We show that it is largely caused by firms' use of internal financing when having significant off-balance-sheet operating assets due to...

The original and advanced Du Pont models fail to account for the firm's contributions to profitability regarding its financing, investing, and operating activities. The original Du Pont model specifies return on equity to be a multiplicative component of profit margin (efficiency of operations),...

This paper analyzes the evolution of the main theories regarding the capital structure and the related impact on risk and corporate performance. The capital structure is a dynamic process that changes over time, depending on the variables that influence the overall evolution of the economy, a...

Prudential Financial was a financial-services company whose stock value has declined due to the financial crisis that took hold of the markets in 2008 and to investor concerns regarding the financial leverage of financial-services companies during this time. Prudential's balance sheet, income...

This paper re-examines the effects that adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has had on financial reporting of French listed firms. By analysing the 2004 financial statements of CAC 40 companies, we show that the transition to the IAS/IFRS has a significant impact...

Financial leverage increases the expected return on equity. We show that this leverage effect is not only irrelevant for shareholders' present wealth but also for the return on their investments. This result is straightforward if we do not only look at the return on equity but at the return on...

In this paper we challenge the view that corporate bonds are always arm's length debt. We analyze the effect of bond ratings on the stock price return to acquirers in M&A transactions, which tend to have significant effects on creditor wealth. We find acquirers abnormal returns to be higher if...

Hedge fund managers are compensated via management fees on the assets under management (AUM) and incentive fees indexed to the high-water mark (HWM). We study the effects of managerial skills (alpha) and compensation on dynamic leverage choices and the valuation of fees and investors' payoffs....

I propose a neoclassical production economy with costly external financing, partial investment irreversibility, and endogenous investment/financing decisions to rationalize and quantify the well-documented interaction between the book-to-market equity effect and the financial leverage effect in...

What is the cross-sectional relationship between financial leverage and expected equity returns? How is the empirical relationship associated with firm's financial decisions? This paper investigates the potential explanations for the flatness relation between financial leverage and expected...