This dissertation provides extensive empirical evidence--a large sample study over a long period--about the link between strategy and shareholder value. In contrast to the typical measure of shareholder value--stock price times the number of shares outstanding--this dissertation uses beta excess...

In this study, a model is introduced to explain the relation between the speed of market reaction to accounting earnings information and the precision of an individual's expectations prior to the earnings announcement. The model predicts that the relationship is negative. A method of estimating...

Based on data on publicly traded insurance firms, the first essay examines questions about the effect of large catastrophic events on insurance firms. Rather than looking at a single event, thirty catastrophic events were aggregated into quintiles and the cumulative abnormal returns around these...

This study investigates whether alternative cash flow measures have an incremental information content over accounting measure. This study employes the arbitrage argument to establish an economic model which makes it possible to incorporate raw accounting variables into a return generating...

The first essay examines the determinants of returns for bidding firms' stocks in mergers and tender offers using cross-sectional micro-firm data. First, we find that potential overpayments to target shareholders are important for explaining cross-sectional differences in bidders' returns upon...

Currency risk in the pricing of international equity returns is analyzed from an empirical viewpoint. The significance of other factors, such as the domestic market index, world index, and industry index is also analyzed.

In Chapter I, the firm's accounts receivable sales decision is modeled both in the case where it is constrained to sell the entire receivable (factoring) and in the case where it has the flexibility to sell a portion of the receivable (receivables securitization.) It is found that because of a...

This is a study of financial and strategic factors relating to the failure and bankruptcy of 73 firms that went bankrupt from 1980 to 1986. The characteristics of the bankrupt firms were compared with those of a matching sample of nonbankrupt firms. On average the bankrupt firms were weaker than...

AbstractThe Effect of Investor Relations on Income Objectives andMeeting ExpectationsBy: Marcus KirkOver a quarter of publicly listed firms employ National InvestorRelationsInstitute (NIRI) members. Yet we know little about the impact ofinvestor relations (IR)for these firms. I examine the role...

Depending on the contractual arrangement, fluctuations in materials prices expose different parties involved in a construction contract to various degrees of risk. In general, owners and/or contractors face the risk of losses when the prices of materials move upwards. Suppliers, on the other...