This paper estimates costs of external finance, applying indirect inference to a dynamic structural model where the corporation endogenously chooses investment, distributions, lever ageand default. The corporation faces double taxation, costly state verification indebt markets, and...

Tobin's q is widely accepted as proxy for an underlying quot;truequot; q, which is assumed to characterize a firm's incentive to invest. Researchers have developed numerous methods for computing q. This paper assesses the measurement quality of different proxies for q. We adapt the...

We estimate real losses arising from the cross-sectional misallocation of financial liabilities. Extending the framework of Hsieh and Klenow (2009) to the liabilities side of the balance sheet, and using manufacturing firm data from the United States and China, we find significant misallocation...

We quantify the importance of collateral versus taxes for firms' capital structures. We estimate a dynamic contracting model in which a firm seeks financing and is subject to taxation. In the model, collateral constraints arise endogenously. Optimal leverage stays a safe distance from the...

We assemble a new, quarterly panel dataset that links firms' investment and financing to their employment and wages. In the data, wages are leverage are negatively related, both cross-sectionally and within firms. This pattern contradicts models in which firms insure workers against unemployment...

The neoclassical q-theory is a good start to understand the cross section of returns. Under constant return to scale, stock returns equal levered investment returns that are tied directly with characteristics. This equation generates the relations of average returns with book-to-market,...

We examine the neoclassical investment model using a panel of U.S. manufacturing firms. The standard model with no financing constraints cannot be rejected for firms with high (pre-sample) dividend payouts. However, it is decisively rejected for firms with low (pre-sample) payouts (firms we...

The theoretical relationship between investment and uncertainty is ambiguous. This paper briefly surveys the insights that theory has to offer and then runs a series of simple tests aimed at evaluating the empirical significance of various theoretical effects. Our results from a panel of U.S....

We review the last two decades of research in dynamic corporate finance, focusing on capital structure and the financing of investment. We first cover continuous time contingent claims models, starting with real options models, and working through static and dynamic capital structure models. We...

We assess the finite sample performance of simulation estimators that are used to estimate the parameters of dynamic corporate finance models. We formulate an out-of-sample specification test and propose a new set of statistical benchmarks that can be used to estimate and evaluate these models....