This dissertation examines common value auctions in which bidder default is allowed. Contractual default on the part of bidders is commonly observed in many auction settings and yet has remained virtually unexplored in the literature. We develop a two bidder model of a common value auction with...

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze tacit collusion in infinitely repeated price-setting games with capacity constrained firms. The dissertation is comprised of three related essays. The first essay contributes to the literature on optimal penal codes in Bertrand-Edgeworth duopoly...

Below are summaries for three essays that share a common theme: each studies a market characteristic that affects price and consumer welfare. The first essay uses experimental methods to test collusive predictions derived in the price-matching literature. Laboratory data demonstrate that...

This dissertation presents an attempt to integrate state-contingent labor and loan contracts in explaining the effects of firm's financial decisions on its employment level and analyzing the fluctuations of employment over the business cycle. As such we propose a model by incorporating...

This study examines the performance of industry consolidating IPOs by using a sample of 58 firms that conducted a roll-up IPO over the 1994-1999 period and 55 build-up IPOs that went public between 1983 and 1999. Results indicate that the long-run stock price performance of roll-up IPOs...

Most working adults have access to a taxable brokerage account (TBA) and a tax deferred retirement account (TDRA). According to the existing literature, taxable bonds should be located in the TDRA, while equities should be located in the TBA due to the tax treatments of these accounts. If...

In the first essay, I test the predictions of the market timing theory of capital structure on a comprehensive sample of firms that issued debt and equity during the period January 1974-December 2001. I first categorize firms as likely and unlikely market timers based on their ability to time...

In this paper, we provide evidence that trading driven by investors' behavioral biases contributes to stock return momentum. In particular, we focus on two types of irrational trading, momentum trading and confidence-influenced trading, which could be driven by psychological biases introduced by...

We hypothesize that firms structure their asset holdings so as to shelter assets from extraction by politicians and bureaucrats. Specifically, in countries where the threat of political extraction is higher, we hypothesize that firms will hold a lower fraction of their assets in liquid form....

This study investigates empirically the factors that determine whether firms borrow from banks and other finance companies versus issuing bonds for sale to the public. I analyze 1,560 new borrowings from banks, non-bank private lenders, and the public debt market by 1,480 U.S. public firms over...