We study the causal effects of analyst coverage on corporate investment and financing policies. We hypothesize that a decrease in analyst coverage increases information asymmetry and thus increases the cost of capital; as a result, firms decrease their investment and financing. We use broker...

We examine whether governance matters for acquisitions. Acquisitions are frequently beneficial to the CEO of the acquiring firm, but can often be value-destructive to acquirer shareholders and other stakeholders such as employees. We find that corporate governance does not appear to influence...

This paper examines local bias in the context of venture capital (VC) investments. Based on a sample of US VC investments between 1980 and June 2009, we find more reputable VCs (older, larger, more experienced, and with stronger IPO track record) and VCs with broader networks exhibit less local...

This essay, based on the author's presentation last September to the annual meeting of the North American Securities Administration Association (NASAA), addresses several issues related to Rule 506, the most widely-used of the SEC's transactional exemptions from federal registration of...

This paper examines the consequences of leveraged buyout (LBO) transactions through the lens of subsequently withdrawn transactions. Using the reason for LBO withdrawal and the unfavorable credit market movements during the period when the deal is in play to address the endogenous withdrawal...

We study how access to private equity financing affects real firm activities using a broad panel of publicly traded U.S. firms that raise external equity through private placements (PIPEs) between 1995 and 2008. The public firms relying on PIPEs are generally small, high-tech firms that cannot...

We review the literature that examines how product markets and competition interact with corporate finance, and provide some ideas for future research. The main takeaway from more than forty years of research is that product market considerations have first-order effects on our understanding of...

We review the literature on the sources of financing and associated financing frictions facing small firms. Using data from the Survey of Business Owners, we first show that about half of small firms do not report using any external finance either for startup or for expansion. Among those that...

This report expands into early 2013 studies of the raw performance (profitability) of $457.6 billion of buybacks executed since 2000 by a sample of 232 corporations. The sample companies, drawn mainly from the technology sector, enjoy total equity market value today of $1.221 trillion. 75.0% of...

Existing literature on dual holding exclusively focuses on cases where the holder is primarily a creditor and buys the firm’s stocks to reduce potential wealth transfer. However, wealth transfer is not a concern when the dual holder is a stockholder first and later becomes a bondholder. We...