I use the global crisis of 1914 as a window onto the phenomenon of investor reaction to complex news — such as sudden political upheaval. Based on a novel database of all stocks traded on the NYSE during 1914, along with “real-time” news accounts from major newspapers, I show that NYSE...

Using a large sample of firms from 45 countries, we find that firms in countries with high climate risk reduce their cash dividends but increasingly use share repurchases to make payouts, suggesting that firms substitute dividends with repurchases to increase their payout flexibility in response...

We study the determinants of dividend payout policy and examine the role of liquidity, risk and catering in explaining the changes in propensity to pay. Our results indicate that risk plays a major role in firms’ dividend policy. The evidence substantiates from a large sample of firms...

It is a ubiquitous corporate governance phenomenon in many countries that shareholders pledge their ownership as collateral to obtain personal loans, while Chinese market provides a specific institutional background to study controlling shareholders. With a sample consisted of 21,921 firm-year...

We explore the distinguishing characteristics of firms that completed or stopped their repurchase programs. Our findings help further understanding the economic reasons why firms would stop buybacks. Based on our international sample of 818 completed and 101 stopped share repurchase programs...

Presentation Slides for "Overconfidence, Arbitrage, and Equilibrium Asset Pricing" This paper offers a model in which asset prices reflect both covariance risk and misperceptions of firmsapos prospects, and in which arbitrageurs trade against mispricing. In equilibrium, expected returns are...

This paper analyzes changes in firms' cash flows and discount rates around share repurchase announcements. Both cash flow and discount rate volatility decrease significantly after repurchase announcements. The decrease in volatility is smallest for firms that are likely to be underpriced and...

This study extends the Grullon, Michaely and Swaminathan (2002) analysis by incorporating default risk. Using data for firms that either increased or initiated cash dividend payments during the 23-year period 1986-2008, we find reduction in default risk. This reduction is shown to be a priced...

The design of the euro area Quantitative Easing (QE) programme raises the question of whether insuficient liquidity in the bond markets will reduce the impact of the programme and lead to market volatility. While estimates suggests that scarcity of around €102 billion may arise over the life...

During 2008, the sudden widening of credit spreads led to a rapid decrease in the value of many financial assets, revealing a general shortage of capital for many financial institutions, with some critical peaks that required fund injection and public bailouts.The evidence of a substantial...