We report a significant positive association between the likelihood of securities fraud allegations and a measure of executive stock option incentives. This relation is robust to the inclusion of other components of the compensation structure and to other possible determinants of fraud...

We report a significant positive association between the likelihood of securities fraud allegations and a measure of executive stock option incentives. This relation is robust to the inclusion of other components of the compensation structure and to other possible determinants of fraud...

We analyze the net tax advantage of S corporations relative to C corporations. Our analysis indicates that the net tax advantage is economically important; it varies directly with the company's payout ratio, the marginal corporate tax rate, and the capital gains rate of the marginal investor;...

The marketability of an asset refers to the degree to which an asset can be converted to cash quickly, without incurring large transactions costs or price concessions. All else equal, the more marketable an asset, the higher the price an investor will be willing to pay for the asset. The lack of...

We examine the stock price reaction to earnings announcements in the five years following seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). On average, post-SEO earnings announcements are met with a significantly negative abnormal stock price reaction. Although, this negative reaction accounts for a...

We examine the equity ownership structure and board composition of a sample of 583 firms over the ten-year period 1983-1992. Our evidence suggests that a substantial fraction of firms exhibit large changes in ownership and board structure in any given year. These changes are correlated with one...

We provide robust evidence that cash holdings are more valuable for financially constrained firms than for unconstrained firms and investigate why this is so. Our results indicate that greater cash holdings are associated with higher levels of investment for both constrained and unconstrained...

In the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, and Japan, the propensity to pay dividends is higher among larger, more profitable firms, and those for which retained earnings comprise a large fraction of total equity. Although there are hints of reductions in the propensity to pay dividends in most...

We examine time-series evidence of dividend polices in several developed financial markets over the period 1989-2002. Consistent with trends in the U.S., our evidence indicates a declining propensity to pay dividends in Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, and Japan. This decline cannot be...

Within diversified firms, the negative impact of leverage on investment is significantly greater for high q than for low q segments, and significantly greater for non-core than for core segments. This is consistent with the view that diversified firms allocate a disproportionate share of their...