In this paper, I conduct a longitudinal analysis of corporate payout policies that accounts for the dynamic nature of these decisions and for the interaction among investment decisions and payout policies. The estimation is done with a VAR model of investment opportunities, profitability, total...

Empirical investigations of the agency costs of dispersed ownership yield mixed results. A possible explanation for the lack of conclusive evidence is inaccurate measurement of the extent of the problem. We suggest that the extent of the problem be measured as theory suggests: by the wealth...

We test whether bond ratings contain pricing-relevant information by examining security price reactions to Moody's refinement of its rating system, which was not accompanied by any fundamental change in issuers' risks, was not preceded by any announcement, and was carried simultaneously for all...

This paper investigates the risk structure of interest rates using pure discount bonds. The most striking feature of the authors' estimates of default-risk premia is the resemblance of their time profile to the theoretical time profile obtained by R. C. Merton (1974). Copyright 1989 by American...

The authors develop a method of measuring ex ante real interest rates using prices of index and nominal bonds. Employing this method and newly available data, they directly test the Fisher hypothesis that the real rate of interest is independent of inflation expectations. The authors find a...