In credit default prediction models, the need to deal with time-varying covariates often arises. For instance, in the context of corporate default prediction a typical approach is to estimate a hazard model by regressing the hazard rate on time-varying covariates like balance sheet or stock...

Firm-level investment paths are commonly characterised by periods of low or zero investment punctuated by large investment ‘spikes’. We document that such spikes are important for understanding firm and aggregate level investment in the UK. We show that annual variation in aggregate...

Much of the new equity declined by existing shareholders in UK SEOs is bought in a few large blocks, both by other existing holders and by new investors. The paper argues that a placing process via negotiation with investors facilitates the purchase of large blocks better than the alternative...

We analyze the optimality of allowing disclosures of different types of information before equity offerings and of alternative rules for private securities litigation, where courts may penalize unduly optimistic disclosures ex post. In our model, firm insiders, with private information about...

We analyze rights offerings and public offerings in a setting where better informed current shareholders strategically choose to subscribe. When all current shareholders have wealth to participate, rights offerings achieve the full information outcome and dominate public offerings. When some...

I hypothesize that highly innovative firms — those with high risk, yet higher potential return — will be more likely to raise funds through stock markets than through bond issuance. Using the Schumpeterian innovation life-cycle as a theoretical framework, I argue that that in the beginning,...

This paper studies the impact of investor sentiment on the probability of firms conducting seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) and on stock performance around and subsequent to SEOs. We first show that investor sentiment is positively related to SEO probability, and that small, high volatility,...

We empirically examine theories of secured debt. Credit risk and asset volatility increase with secured debt issuance, and the strength of this association is unrelated to contemporaneous investment. Hand-collected data reveals most secured debt is secured on all assets of the firm and rarely...

This paper provides a theory of debt and hedging based on human capital. We distinguish human capital from physical capital in two ways: (1) human capital is inalienable and can exercise a one-sided option to leave the firm, and (2) human capital is not perfectly replaceable. We show that a firm...