This paper studies capital structure adjustment mechanisms of firms that experience substantial changes in leverage. Adjustments appear to be asymmetric among firms with large increases and those with large decreases in debt ratios. The different adjustments are not due to differences in...

This paper examines the relation between information asymmetry, capital structure and the cost of capital across countries, particularly focusing on how the relation is influenced by the various aspects of institutional environment. Results show that firms with more informational asymmetries...

We examine if the sequence of stock market liberalization events matters for corporate financing choices. We contrast firms who attain ‘investable' status through domestic reforms with those who do so by issuing American Depository Receipt programs. We find that the first liberalization event...

Up to a point, banks and markets both foster economic growth. Beyond that limit, expanded bank lending or market-based financing no longer adds to real growth. But when it comes to moderating business cycle fluctuations, banks and markets differ considerably in their effects. In normal...

Using the framework of trade-off model of capital structure, I incorporate implicit bailout claim in firm value process and show that high sovereign credit risk lowers firm's optimal leverage. Empirical results using firm data in 11 euro area countries show that optimal leverage of big firms is...

This paper presents evidence that firms choose conservative financial policies partly to mitigate workers' exposure to unemployment risk. We exploit changes in state unemployment insurance laws as a source of variation in the costs borne by workers during layoff spells. We find that higher...

This article investigates how “systematic” adjustment costs proxied by market imperfections, and macroeconomic conditions affect capital structure dynamics in a cross-country setting. We document substantial variations in firms' capital structure adjustments across countries and,...

There has been considerable research into dynamic global tactical asset allocation (GTAA) strategies driven by simple measures of Valuation and Momentum applied to a baseline balanced portfolio of equities and fixed income (see Blitz and van Vliet 2008, Wang and Kochard 2011, Gnedenko and Yelnik...

This paper studies optimal contest design for competitive experimentation. The principal seeks contributions from multiple agents whose experimentation efforts are unobservable. To induce effort, the contest must provide agents with an information rent that increases in the duration of the...