We test recent theories of when companies go public which predict that 1) more companies will go public when outside valuations are high or have increased, 2) companies prefer going public when uncertainty about their future profitability is high, and 3) firms whose controlling shareholders...

I analyse the effect of ownership structure and bank control on performance. I employ a unique data set of 715 German takeovers to test whether group structure, large shareholders, and bank control affect their value to shareholders. First, I find that takeovers increase bidder value, but...

We first analyse legal provisions relating to corporate transparency in Germany. We show that despite the new securities trading law (WpHG) of 1995, the practical efficacy of disclosure regulation is very low. On the one hand, the formation of business groups involving less regulated legal forms...

Insider trading may convey information to the market and promote accuratepricing of stocks. In this dissertation, I investigate insider trading at the turn of thecentury.In the first essay, I investigate insider trading activity in technology stocks duringthe high price - high volatility period...

In the first essay, we provide new evidence on the relationship between order flow and prices, an issue that is central to asset pricing and market microstructure. We examine proprietary data on a broad panel of NYSE-listed stocks that reveal daily order imbalances by institutions, individuals,...

Prior research has established that stocks with high dispersion of earningsforecasts or short interest are associated with low subsequent returns. Assumingdispersion of forecasts is a proxy for divergence of opinions and short interest is a proxyfor short selling constraints, these results have...