The term “equity premium puzzle” was coined in 1985 by economists Rajnish Mehra and Edward C. Prescott. The equity premium puzzle in considered one of the most significant questions in finance. A number of papers have explored the fundamental questions of why the premium exists and has not...

Modigliani and Miller (M&M) proposed that investors forgo dividends, leaving the money available for reinvestment as retained earnings. This recommendation takes two parts: Proposition III, i.e., a dividend has no impact on market value, and Proposition IV, i.e., that financial policy is of no...

We examine the influence of investor conferences on firms' stock liquidity. We find that firms participating in conferences experience a 1.4% to 2.8% increase in stock liquidity compared to non-conference firms. Consistent with investor conferences improving firm visibility, the increase in...

Using management earnings forecasts over the period 1996-2010, I find that the sensitivity of forecast revisions to contemporaneous stock returns is increasing in the amount of investors' private information in prices. This effect remains after controlling for various confounds and is robust to...

This paper analyses the effects of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) market on real investment decisions in emerging industries. We first propose a model of IPO timing based on divergence of opinion among investors and short-sale constraints. Using a real option approach, we show that firms are...

Understanding the factors that drive the stock market is more than an academic exercise. With a framework to understanding what that drives the overall market, business leaders are positioned to drive value their own businesses. While driving increases in shareholder value is one of the most...

This study shows that the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the resulting dislocation in capital markets have notably differential impacts on firms according to their internal/external finance dependence. We find evidence of capital reallocation across firms during the financial crisis: firms...

This paper examines the performance of two commonly applied bankruptcy prediction models, the accounting ratio-based Altman Z-Score model, and the structural Distance to Default model which currently underlies Morningstar's Financial Health Grade for public companies (Morningstar 2008)....

We consider the role of local geographic peers in determining equilibrium firm behavior. We exploit in-transitivity in local peer-firm networks and utilize spatial econometric techniques to circumvent well-known challenges in estimating and interpreting empirical models of peer effects. We find...

We propose the standard neoclassical model of investment under uncertainty with short-run adjustment frictions as a benchmark for earnings-return patterns absent accounting influences. We show that our proposed benchmark generates a wide range of earnings-return patterns documented in accounting...