We use a new international setting to test and strengthen the identification of “target leverage hypothesis” in the payout policy literature. We conduct a quasi-natural experiment induced by staggered share repurchase legalization in 17 economies and analyze its influences on leverage...

Using corporate payout data from 33 economies around the world, this study investigates the relations among stock repurchases, dividends and firm value (as well as cash value) under different investor protection environments. We find that stock repurchases contribute more to firm value in...

Extant research finds that firms are increasingly substituting dividends with share repurchases. This substitution effect is largely attributable to the flexibility offered by share repurchases but not by dividends. Without fear of an adverse market reaction, firms can choose not to repurchase...

We distill evidence about the effects of COVID-19 on companies. Stock price reactions to the shock differed greatly across firms, depending on their resilience to social distancing, financial flexibility, and corporate culture. The same characteristics affected the response of firms' sales,...

We examine how sovereign wealth fund (SWF) investments affect target firms’ cost of debt. Using a large sample across 39 countries from 2004 to 2019, and applying a difference-in-differences (DiD) approach, we find that the loan spread of target firms decreases after equity investment by SWFs....

We study the returns the venture capital and private equity investment from 221 venture capital and private equity funds that are part of 72 venture capital and private equity firms, 5040 entrepreneurial firms (3826 venture capital and 1214 private equity), and spanning 32 years (1971 - 2003)...