This paper aims to identify economic shocks in four developed countries that authorize different buyback programs. Previous research has revealed that there are few public debates about buyback activities and economic conditions. According to the free cash flow hypothesis, the total payout...

We analyze the main forces affecting financial system pro-cyclicality (the fact that developments in the financial sector can amplify business cycle fluctuations). We first review some major structural developments in financial markets that may influence pro-cyclicality and that have been...

Prior research on strategic corporate disclosure in good times versus bad often produces divergent inferences when focusing on selected channels and different disclosure windows. In this paper, we instead study a comprehensive set of corporate disclosure channels over the annual disclosure...

Firms in the S and P 500 often announce layoffs within days of one another, despite the fact that the average S and P 500 constituent announces layoffs once every 5 years. By contrast, similarsized privately-held firms do not behave in this way. This paper provides empirical evidence that such...